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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/methodinhistoryfOOmace 



Method in History 



FOR 



TEACHERS AND STUDENTS 



BY 



WILLIAM H. MACE 

Professor of History in Syracuse University, and author of 
" A Working Manual of American History" 



"The Law in the Mind and the Thought 
in the Thing determine the Method" 
-Wm. A. Jones 






t JAN 

Boston, U.SA., and London 
GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 

1897 






Copyright, 1897 
By WILLIAM H. MACE 



AJAj rights reserved 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



+36 



This book was not made to order, but grew out of an 
effort, extending over several years, to justify the study of 
the Pedagogy of History in a University Normal School. 
Out of almost daily conferences over the problems of 
general and special method arose the germs of that 
masterful work, The Philosophy of Teaching, by Prof. 
Arnold Tompkins, University of Illinois, and the present 
volume, "Method in History." It is particularly gratifying 
to me that this work, in passing through the press, has 
again had the benefit of Professor Tompkins' deep insight 
into the problem of teaching. The general principles of 
the book also had the great benefit of being reviewed 
by Superintendent Lewis H. Jones, Cleveland, Ohio;, and 
President E. Benjamin Andrews, Brown University. 

I am deeply indebted to Prof. Cyrus W. Hodgin, Earlham 
College, not only for friendly encouragement while devel- 
oping the work, but particularly for generous and valuable 
service in the criticism of both its form and content. I 
desire, also, to express my obligation to Prof. Moses Coit 



iv PREFATORY NOTE. 

Tyler, Cornell University, for the exceptional privilege of 
working out a portion of the book in his Historical Seminar, 
and for his scholarly and sympathetic criticisms. Finally, 
the work has profited by the careful proof-reading of Mr. 
Herbert P. Gallinger, Fellow in History, Amherst College. 

W. H. M. 
Syracuse University, March 10, 1896. 



CONTENTS. 

— -**-Sg-fr~ — 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION xi 

GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 
Essential Elements of History. 

General Character of the Problem 1 

Erroneous View of History 2 

Ideas of Form and Content in History 3 

Continuity and Differentiation 7 

^X^ Five Great Institutions in History 10 

The Five Phases not always Coordinate 14 

Organic Unity of Institutional Life 15 

Processes Involved in Organizing History. 

General Nature of Organization 19 

Organizing Principle of History 20 

Fundamental Processes in Organization 21 

THE PROCESS OF INTERPRETATION. 

Nature and Kinds. 

Definition of Interpretation 21 

Interpretation of Events 26 

Forms of Thought and Sentiment as Discovered in Inter- 
pretation. 

Causes 27 

Positive and Negative Causes 28 

Fundamental and Particular Causes 29 

Purpose and Means 34 

Immediate and Remote Ends 39 

Material Presented for Interpretation. 

Second-hand Material 42 

Original Material 43 



VI CONTENTS. 

Educational Value of Interpretation. page 

Nature of the Question 46 

Integration and Unification 46 

The Mechanical Historical Whole... 47 

The Organic Historical Whole 49 

Comparison the Basis of Integration 50 

Simplification of Historical Knowledge 52 

Division and its Uses 52 

Interpretation Develops Historical Judgment 56 

Emotional Results of Interpretation 58 

Ethical Value of Interpretation 60 

THE PROCESS OF COORDINATION. 

Nature of the Process. 

Basis of Coordination 64 

Theoretical and Practical Need 65 

Principle Stated 67 

Suggestions as to Application 68 

Educational Value of Coordination. 

Effects as to Knowledge 74 

Power of Judging Contemporaneous Events 75 

ORGANIZATION OF THE PERIODS OF AMERICAN 
HISTORY. 

Period of the Growth of Local Institutions. 

the relation of discoveries and explorations to this 

PERIOD. 

Not a Coordinate Phase of Institutional Life 77 

True Connection and Rank 78 

Non-American History 81 

THE PERIOD AS A WHOLE. 

What Constitutes a Period. 82 

Nature of this Period 82 

Organizing Idea 84 

Phases of the Period 85 

DIFFUSION OF RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES. 

Why the New Differentiation is Made 86 

The Organizing Principle in the Concrete 87 



CONTENTS. Vli 

Principle Governing New England's Conduct toward page 

English Authority 91 

CENTRALIZATION OP RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES. 

Nature of this Organizing Idea 93 

General Causes of the Movement 94 

Economical Aspects 94 

Social and Educational Effects 96 

How the Principle Worked in Politics and Religion... 98 

Conclusion 100 

Principle Governing Southern Colonists' Attitude 

toward England 101 

THE MIDDLE COLONIES. 

Internal Institutional Growth 103 

Attitude toward English Authority 104 

Period of the Growth of Union, 
the period as a whole. 

Transition from Isolation to Union ' 105 

Period Proper 107 

Organization as a Whole 109 

Phases of the Period Ill 

UNION AGAINST ENGLAND. 

Organizes Events from 1760 to 1783 112 

Union on Basis of Rights of Englishmen 113 

Union on Basis of Rights of Man 118 

Organization of Military Events 120 

UNION BETWEEN THE STATES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT. 

Organizing Idea of Second Half of the Revolution 129 

Union on Basis of Sovereignty of the State 132 

Union on Basis of Sovereignty of the Nation 135 

Process and Material of Organization 137 

Limit to the Process of Organizing a Period 140 

Result 142 

Period op the Development op Nationality. 

the period as a whole. 

General Nature of the Period 145 

Phases of the Period 148 



Vlli CONTENTS. 

Nationality and Democracy. page 
a period of conflict. 

Germs of the Conflict 149 

Unconscious Progress of National Sentiment 150 

Struggle Originates over Domestic Questions.. 152 

Progress of the Conflict over Foreign Relations 158 

Rapid Development of Anti-Democratic Sentiment 

among the Federalists 164 

The Triumph of Democracy 166 

THE MUTUAL APPROACH OF NATIONALITY AND DEMOCRACY. 

General Features of this Phase 170 

Purchase of Louisiana 172 

English Aggressions 175 

Democracy's Efforts at Redress 176 

Effects on Progress of Nationality and Democracy 179 

War of 1812 as a Product of the National Spirit 180 

The War as a Factor in Nationalizing Democracy 185 

Significance of the Era of Good Feeling 190 

THE FUSION OF NATIONALITY AND DEMOCRACY WORKING 
OUT ITS RESULTS. 

General Significance of this Phase 191 

Significance of Jackson's Election 192 

Jackson's Rule Interpreted 196 

Campaign of 1840 201 

Era of National Pride 203 

Nationality and Slavery. 

development of the conflict. 

Origin of the Struggle 206 

Meaning of the Missouri Struggle 210 

Slavery Nullifies the Tariff 211 

Meaning of the Movement for Texas 215 

THE GROWTH OF SECTIONALIZATION. 

Process already Begun 216 

Motive and Results of the Mexican War 219 

How the Discovery of Gold in California Aided in Sec- 

tionalizing the Nation 222 

Compromise of 1850 224 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill 226 

Dred Scott Decision 229 

Lincoln-Douglas Debate 230 

Other Symptoms of the Triumph of Sectionalization.... 231 

Meaning of the Charleston Convention 233 

Significance of Secession 236 

THE DESTRUCTION OF SLAVERY AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE 
NATION. 

Significance of Slavery's Appeal to Arms 238 

Revival of Nationality in the North 240 

How the Slavery Question Forced its Way to the Front 241 

Significance of the Proclamation of Emancipation 245 

Leading Military Events Making Good the Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation and the Restoration of the 

Nation 247 

Other Events from the Proclamation to the Close of 

the War 250 

Digging Slavery up by the Roots 252 

THE ELEMENTARY PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 
The Sense Phase of History, 
the general problem. 

Nature and Purpose of Sense History 256 

the material for sense history. 
The Representative Phase of History, 
the general problem. 

Nature and Immediate Purpose 267 

Remote Purpose ! 271 

MATERIAL FOR REPRESENTATIVE HISTORY. 

How to find the Starting-point 273 

FORMS IN WHICH REPRESENTATIVE MATERIAL MAY BE PRE- 
SENTED. 

Story of the Ideal Historical Person 278 

Story of the Real Historical Person 285 

Story Side of the Event 289 

Illustrations of Material and Method of Work 293 

History Books for Young People 304 



INTRODUCTION. 



I well know the danger that argues against wrenching 
a subject to make it support a preconceived theory. Efforts 
have been made to avoid this, and thus escape error and 
reaen the truth. To this end the Introduction is now 
written after the body of the work is ready for the pub- 
lisher. However, certain general principles of education 
have been present from the beginning, and have been either 
confirmed or modified by the investigation into the " Method 
in History." It is now proposed to indicate the nature of 
the problem attacked and explain the method of its solution. 

To state the matter negatively, the aim has not been 
to discuss devices and external manipulations in teaching 
history ; the term " method " is not even intended to 
suggest diagrams, chronological charts, or other expedients 
of like nature. But something far more fundamental has 
been the aim : the determining factors in method and not 
the determined — the principal and not the accidental 
— ones have been sought for and put to work at the 
problem. Whether diagrams, outlines, maps, and so on are 
to be used in teaching history cannot be decided by the 
whim of the teacher or by some current fashion in teach- 
ing this subject, but is to be decided, like a dozen other 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

questions about devices and expedients, by an appeal to 
principles. 

It has been held in mind that education is an organic 
process carried on by the cooperation of two forces : mind, 
with its powers, processes, and products ; subject, with its 
real or possible system of principles and facts. No neces- 
sity exists here for the discussion of the unsettled problem 
concerning the identity or non-identity of mind and sub- 
ject ; it is sufficient to know that in the educative process, 
conscious or unconscious, there is such a correspondence 
and cooperation between the two factors that changes are 
wrought in one of the factors, — mind ; and we often speak 
of the subject as being changed from crude facts into some 
sort of system. In any event, the mind of the learner 
becomes educated — its possibilities made realities — by 
possessing the thought of the subject. 

In the process of learning the mind is conscious of the 
thing it thinks and not of its own subjective processes. 
In the process of teaching the learning mind is led and 
directed in its efforts to come into contact with the content 
of things. The teaching act involves another act of cor- 
respondence and cooperation ; the mind of the teacher and 
the mind of the learner cooperate in this act, the learner, 
as before stated, conscious only of his subject, while the 
teacher is conscious of the learner's thinking of the subject. 
The teacher either is or is not directing a mental process. 
If he is, then his conscious attention must rest upon that 
process. The subject presents the common ground where 
the teaching mind and the learning mind meet. The sub- 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

ject itself is the product of a series of mental processes ; 
it is a sort of mental formula which expresses the experi- 
ence of the minds that have wrought it out. In order, 
therefore, to direct the student mind in its creation of the 
subject, the teacher must first have analyzed it into its 
mental processes and products. 

The above are fundamental facts about method in teach- 
ing. These are some of the principles upon which the 
so-called " methods " of teaching rest. They control ; they 
are determining factors. To these must appeal be made 
in deciding what devices shall be used, questions asked, or 
directions given. How may a teacher know, for a cer- 
tainty, what general devices are usable in any subject, 
without knowing the general forms of activity the subject 
calls forth ? How may a teacher prepare for the work 
of each day who cannot forecast the thinking and feeling 
to be aroused ? 

The above factors are valuable as correctors of experi- 
ence; they are above experience, for they inhere in the 
nature of the teaching act. Experience makes mistakes, 
and therefore is not the only guide, but must itself be 
guided. Following the experience of others may be mere 
imitation and make one the slave of forms, while teaching 
under the guidance of principles gives inspiration and 
confers freedom. 

The analysis of a subject into its mental process not 
only forms the basis for any rational discussion of the 
devices to be used in stimulating the learning mind, but 
such an analysis also forms the true basis for a discussion 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

of the subject's educational value. The platitudes on this 
great pedagogical problem might well be exchanged for a 
critical analysis of the processes and products stimulated 
and created in the learning mind. Such an analysis is best 
made by observing the mind in the actual and concrete 
process of working its way through the subject, and the 
most competent person to make this observation is the 
competent teacher whose function it is to direct this proc- 
ess. The well-equipped public school teacher ought to be 
better able to make a helpful discussion of educational 
values than the superintendent, for he tests products and 
results, while she ought to consciously direct processes. 
The specialist in a Normal School or University ought, 
also, to be more of an authority on the problem of method 
in his field than even the Professor of Methods or the 
Chair Pedagogy. If specialists were to turn their atten- 
tion to the problem of method and educational values in 
this higher sense, we should ultimately bridge the chasm 
between our theory and practice ; our theory would vitalize 
our teaching and in return our teaching would exemplify 
the principles of our theory. This chasm is due to the fact 
that our educational doctrines are obtained from a general 
study of mind alone, while they ought to be obtained 
from reducing this general view to a concrete form, or, 
perhaps better, the general view of mind ought to be ap- 
proached through the medium of the subject which is mind 
in its concrete form. In making his preparation for teach- 
ing, the student has before him two subjects, apparently 
very different in every way ; he sees little kinship between 



INTRODUCTION.. XV 

psychology and grammar. He usually feels that psychology 
is a professional subject — a subject which somehow pre- 
pares him to teach, while the special subject is non-pro- 
fessional. Normal Schools generally set aside a portion of 
their work and dignify it by the term "professional," while 
other work is cheapened by being called academic. In a 
Normal School the study of language, history, or mathe- 
matics ought to be, and can be, made as strictly profes- 
sional as the study of psychology. In truth the latter, as 
generally taught, is just as non-professional as Latin or 
algebra ; the only way to render any subject professional 
is to study its bearing on the process of learning and teach- 
ing. Now, the essential nature of geography is just as 
important a factor in determining the method of learning 
and teaching geography as is psychology. 

The result of this one-sided view — or at best this dual 
view of professional preparation — is that we have a litera- 
ture that speaks of applied psychology, as if it were a sub- 
ject to be learned and then in some way forced upon the 
subject, — the subject made to fit a scheme that has been 
prepared beforehand without particularly consulting the 
subject to be professionalized. The result is that teachers 
"professionally trained" still continue unable to bridge 
the chasm between theory and practice. 

This imperfect conception of the nature and relations of 
the factors which must cooperate to determine rational 
methods of instruction is not confined to the graduates of 
Normal Schools. In fact, this class of teachers promise 
too much toward remedying this evil. The truth is that 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

it is the prevailing custom among teachers in secondary 
and primary schools to look upon the subject they teach as 
contributing very little to the method of its teaching. The 
result is to lower the subject — and, worst of all, the work 
of teaching — in the estimation of the teacher. The sub- 
ject stands as so much simple and easy matter upon which 
no special preparation for the recitation is needed. The 
work ceases to be interesting and sinks into mere drudgery. 
College graduates take the same low view of work in 
these schools. They feel that the branches taught even in 
the best secondary schools present no problem worthy of 
their metal ! There is a problem here worthy of their best 
endeavors and that challenges, in point of difficulty, their 
strongest and keenest powers. They generally do not 
know where to look for it; it is a pedagogical, and not an 
academical, problem. This work is written with the con- 
fident hope that such a problem will be perceived in the 
domain of history teaching in the primary and secondary 
schools. 

The ideas briefly stated in the preceding pages have 
given general direction to this work. The plan has been 
to look into history and discover there the processes 
and products that the mind must work out in organizing 
its facts into a system. Accordingly, the first step analyzes 
a number of historical facts to discover some of the essen- 
tial concepts in history, and at the same time allows the 
facts discovered to indicate something about the general 
way in which the mind must move in the subject. This is 
followed by a more detailed inquiry into the general proc- 



INTRODUCTION. XV11 

esses involved in organizing the material of history into 
the form of a system. In other words, the general proc- 
esses of interpretation and coordination and subordination 
are inquired into and illustrated. Under the head of the 
educational value of interpretation and coordination and 
subordination the specific intellectual processes and prod- 
ucts are indicated and illustrated, and also the emotional 
and ethical stimulus imparted is pointed out. Next follows 
an attempt to make more definite the general principles of 
historical organization, and to show more fully their educa- 
tional value by looking into the various periods and sub- 
periods of American history. The purpose here was not 
to organize the periods in detail, but rather to demonstrate 
the possibility of doing so. With the ideal of historical 
organization in mind, as these steps aim to create it, the 
next part of the discussion opens with those preliminary 
steps that the immature mind of the Primary and Grammar 
grades must take in order to prepare the way for the real- 
ization of the ideal set forth above. History in its organ- 
ized or scientific form is an ideal toward which all work 
in the subject ought to be directed. The teacher in the 
Primary and Intermediate grades ought to be under the 
influence of this view of history, and should be consciously 
influenced by the fact that their work is one step toward 
that goal. 



METHOD IN" HISTOET. 



+» 



THE GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY 

AND THE PROCESSES INVOLVED IN THE ORGANI- 
ZATION OF HISTORICAL MATERIAL. 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 

The General Character of the Problem. — Two factors 
unite to produce historical knowledge, — the transforming 
agent, mind, and the material to be transformed, the facts 
of history. The explanation of how historical facts become 
mind, and how mind becomes history, is the explanation of 
the process of learning history. The relation between 
these factors is an organic one. Hence, they can be most 
profitably discussed together. In fact it is mere specula- 
tion about historical science to discuss them out of this 
living relation, and leaves the ordinary teacher possessed 
of a body of theory and a body of concrete facts which 
have no power over each other. It is confidently believed 
that no better way can be found to enable the teacher to 
bridge the chasm between theory and practice than to 
exhibit the mind in the concrete process of working its way 
through history. 



2 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

There must necessarily be two phases to our investiga- 
tion : the first will set forth the essential attributes of the 
material out of which history is constructed and the form 
which this science will take, thus exhibiting it as a system 
of ideas, — history reduced to a form of thought ; the 
second will investigate the mental forms and processes 
that history calls forth, — mind transformed into history, 
or at least transformed by history. 

The first of these phases is the one in which we end with 
a logical view of history, — the form the subject must 
finally take in the mature mind. This final view is equally 
valuable to the teacher in every grade from the primary 
school to the university. This thought of the subject the 
university professor must build into the mind of the stu- 
dent, and the primary teacher must hold it in view as the 
goal for which she is preparing her pupils $ it is the ideal, 
on the side of the subject, that must inspire and beckon both. 
The discussion of the first phase naturally falls into two 
parts : one investigating the fundamental attributes of the 
subject-matter of history, and the other examining the func- 
tion of these attributes in the process of giving the subject 
its scientific form. Although each of these sub-phases will 
have its turn in the discussion, it is not intended to keep 
them rigidly separate, but, for pedagogical reasons already 
given, they will be interwoven. Whenever conclusions are 
reached as to the nature of historical material, their peda- 
gogical implications will generally be noted. 

An Erroneous View of History. — One of the most com- 
mon errors about the nature of history is to regard it as 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 3 

a " record." It is not a record, at least not more so than 
any other subject, for it does not deal with the record as 
such. History is hardly the thing recorded, for it does 
not deal with events for their own sake, but only so far as 
they reveal the life of which they are the result. The 
" record " idea of history is a conception both superficial 
and harmful, — superficial because it gives the teacher and 
student no clue to the real nature of the historical problem, 
and harmful because it both leads to the belief that the 
book is the subject, and suggests that the proper thing to 
do is to transfer the record from the book to the pupil's 
mind by means of verbal memory. 1 After making this 
brief statement of what history is not, let us go in quest 
of a conception that is more fundamental, and therefore 
more helpful ; and one, too, that is drawn from a careful 
analysis of the material of history itself. 

The Ideas of Form and Content in History Developed. — 
The Pilgrims landed in December, 1620; but, as far as we can 
see, our institutions would not be different if the Pilgrims 
had landed six months earlier or six months later. The 
landing was made on Plymouth Eock ; but it is difficult to 
show that this interesting incident has added to the sta- 
bility of our institutions. They came over in the Mayflower. 
What if it had been the Speedwell, a vessel of no mean 
name ? Would this have given America a different destiny ? 
This boatload of precious freight numbered one hundred 

1 This view of the subject leads to assigning lessons in terms of 
paragraphs and pages ; and, what is still worse, the recitation is con- 
ducted in the same way. 



4 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

two souls. What if there had been one hundred or 
one hundred twenty ? Would this difference in num- 
bers have changed our political, religious, and social 
life ? They signed the " Compact " in the cabin of the 
Mayflower • but it could have been signed on land without 
having had its significance altered. There is one thing in 
the life of this hardy band, and in the life of the numerous 
bands that came to New England and elsewhere, that could 
not have been changed without changing our history. If 
these early settlers had been animated by a different set of 
political, religious, and social ideas, the whole character and 
trend of our institutions would have been altered. 

The Declaration of Independence was made in Indepen- 
dence Hall, Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776, in the hand- 
writing of Thomas Jefferson, and with the big signature of 
John Hancock attached. This event is a fact of great sig- 
nificance in the life of our people, but in what does its 
significance really consist ? Is it found in any or all of 
the incidents named ? Many of these, however interesting, 
seem matters of accident. Could not the Declaration have 
been made in Carpenters' Hall, on some other day, in the 
handwriting of some clerk, and have been signed by some 
other president of the Continental Congress ? Would 
such a variation in these facts have materially affected the 
course of the Revolution ? Could not all of these happenings 
have been different, and yet the whole of our history have 
been, in the main, what it has been ? But there is a some- 
thing here without which the superstructure of our insti- 
tutional life would be entirely different. This vital thing 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 5 

is the thought expressed in the Declaration, — the political 
doctrines of the American people, then and now, which 
it sets forth. This is the historical content of the event 
and the document we call the Declaration of Independence ; 
this is its life ; for without these ideas back of it, the event 
would not have occurred. 

The battle of Gettysburg was seen, heard, and felt by its 
participants. It had a time and a place; there were so 
many soldiers in line on each side, and these were com- 
manded by certain officers ; so many men were killed and 
wounded. In short, a hundred interesting incidents con- 
nect themselves with this gigantic contest. But did these 
things constitute the real Gettysburg ? Could not most, if 
not all, of these features have varied and yet the real his- 
torical fact have occurred? The ideas and principles that 
surged in the brains and hearts of the two armies and of 
the two sections, and without which the physical struggle 
would not have been, were the true Gettysburg. No ; the 
student who does not see two sets of political, social, 
and industrial ideas belch from the opposing cannon and 
gleam from sword and saber or flash from deadly bayonet 
misses the permanent and enduring Gettysburg ! 

If the process of analysis were applied to other events 
in our history, or to events connected with the life of any 
people, it would confirm what is already apparent, namely, 
that there are two sets of facts in history. From this 
brief analysis, however, the following conclusions may 
be drawn as to the nature of history and as to the method 
of its study: 



6 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

1. That one set of historical facts is made up of a 
people's acts and the other of their thoughts and feelings, 
ideas and emotions, and that these two sets are parallel 
in time and together in place. This suggests a more inti- 
mate connection. 

2. That deeds or events are the signs or expressions of 
a people's thought and feelings. Man thinks and feels, 
and acts because he thinks and feels. The act, therefore, 
is adapted to give expression to his state of mind. Hence, 
the student may read a nation's thought in its events. 1 

3. It may be said that events constitute the outer form 
of the subject-matter of history, while thoughts, emotions, 
and so on, constitute the essence or content of history. It 
follows, then, that the problem of history lies in the mas- 
tery of the content, while the events perform the function 
of means. 

4. Events occur, but ideas continue. Events are tran- 
sient while ideas are enduring. Only ideas recur. The 
same idea or sentiment may express itself in numberless 
events of very different characteristics. The event, there- 
fore, is particular, while the idea or sentiment may be 
viewed as general. It follows that connections and con- 

1 Every subject of study presents these two phases, — form and 
content. In mathematics we have signs, rules, and formulae; and 
number, its processes and relations. In language are found words, 
sentences, and paragraphs ; and also thoughts ; and so on with other 
subjects. " The amount of bad teaching growing out of a failure to 
clearly differentiate form and content is simply appalling." The 
most common mistake is to exalt form into an end, and degrade con- 
tent into a means, or permit it to disappear altogether. 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 7 

tinuity in history must be sought in ideas rather than 
among events. The full pedagogical significance of this 
distinction will be seen further on. 

5. Primarily, events are effects, while thoughts and feel- 
ings are the causes. But a people in the process of acting 
under the impulse of an idea may modify it very greatly, 
may intensify or diminish its strength, or may catch new 
glimpses of its advantage or its disadvantage. In a sec- 
ondary sense, then, events are causes and ideas are effects. 
The suggestion here is that the teacher must see to it that 
students catch the change in public sentiment that comes 
through action, as well as search for the true cause of 
events in a preceding state of public sentiment. 

Growth in History is under the Laws of Continuity 
and Differentiation. — It must be apparent from the above 
conclusions that the problem of how to study and how to 
teach history can be illuminated by a closer study of what 
is seen to be the real essence of history, rather than by a 
study of its outer form. This essence or content is the 
life of a people, its life of thought and feeling. Thoughts 
and feelings are forces that tend to realize themselves by 
growth. They grow in extent by passing from mind to 
mind. This process may go on until they absorb the 
attention of the whole people. But such growth is 
marked by changes in the ideas themselves. The laws 
under which the content of history develops will appear 
from the illustrations below. 

A long time ago, the English kings called around them 
their richest nobles to see how much they would give to 



8 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

carry on government or to prosecute war. This was re- 
peated until it became a right on the part of the lords to 
grant or refuse aid. After a time, other classes sent repre- 
sentatives to advise the king. The two sets of advisers 
formed the two houses of parliament, and the people 
through these representatives managed the government of 
England. The English colonies carried the idea to Amer- 
ica. In early colonial times there was but one set of 
representatives for purposes of legislation, — men elected 
to represent the town or county in the colonial legislatures. 
But before the Revolution, nearly all of the colonies had 
two sets of representatives. The Revolution called for a 
third set of delegates to represent the colony in the Con- 
tinental Congress. The idea of delegated authority has 
made great strides since that time. Now the ward has its 
representatives in the common council, the township has 
its delegates to the commissioners' court, while the county 
elects men to go to the state legislature, and the states 
in turn elect two sets of representatives to the national 
Congress. The idea goes further : it has penetrated reli- 
gious, educational, and industrial organizations, and seems 
to furnish a convenient method of conducting any affair 
in a large way. The complexity of the system is in strik- 
ing contrast with the simple method of the colonial days 
or of the still simpler way- of early England. 

Continuity and differentiation in the content of history 
are also well illustrated by the development of the idea of 
toleration in religion. Once Virginia persecuted Baptists 
and Puritans, while Massachusetts banished Boger Williams 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 9 

and hanged Quakers ; but even in colonial times, the laws 
against Quakers were either repealed or not enforced, and 
the penalties against heresy were greatly reduced. The 
revolutionary struggle wore off the sharp edges of religious 
prejudice, so that most of the states recognized religious 
freedom in their new constitutions. The sentiment of 
toleration won its way so completely that the Constitution 
declared the national legal separation of church and state ; 
but religious freedom has not ceased growing after winning 
a formal and legal recognition of its right ; it is now taking 
on the form of a moral and personal right. The large and 
increasing number of religious sects at present, compared 
with the number in colonial days, shows how rapidly differ- 
entiation in religious belief has gone on. 

Other illustrations of these laws may be found by tra- 
cing the development of our public-school system from its 
colonial germs to its present high degree of complexity, 
and also by marking the evolution of the crude industrial 
ways of our early settlers down to the highly developed 
organism of our own times. 1 

From the above analyses and illustrations the following 
conclusions may be drawn : 

1. That history deals with the life of a people in the 
process of growth. The content of history is not a dead 
or fixed thing, but it lives and moves ; it is dynamical and 
not statical. 

1 The importance of clearly understanding these laws justifies large 
illustration. Each new illustration can be made more helpful by using 
a different sort of idea from those found in preceding illustrations. 



10 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

2. A people's life of thought and feeling obeys the law 
of continuity and of differentiation. The law of continuity 
means that there are no breaks or leaps in the life of a 
people. Development may hasten or may slacken, and 
may seem to cease for a time, but it is always continuous ; 
it always proceeds out of antecedent conditions, and if it 
be arrested for a time, it begins again at the point where it 
ended. The operation of continuity makes history a unit, 
and is the basis of the organization of its facts into a system. 

3. The law of differentiation means that the thoughts 
and feelings of a people take- on new form in the process 
of growth. The new idea or movement, under continuity, 
bears resemblance to its former self, while under differen- 
tiation it is becoming unlike its former self. Continuity 
retains something of the old, while differentiation brings 
to it something new. In adding to the content of history, 
differentiation produces complexity and at the same time 
gives, in the new difference, the basis for noting progress. 1 

4. That the understanding of history requires the stu- 
dent to take ideas as germs and trace them through all 
phases of their growth, thus putting continuous and paral- 
lel threads of thought through the entire subject. This is a 
kind of organization, because it puts a similar, though not 
identical, content into remote and very diversified events. 

Five Lines of Growth and Five Great Institutions in 
History. — Not only do certain lines of thought develop 
in obedience to the laws of continuity and differentiation, 

1 The constant recurrence, through their application, of the points 
under " 2 " and " 3 " makes their further illustration unnecessary. 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 11 

but the life of the race, as a whole, grows in the same 
way. An examination of the life of any people will reveal 
certain permanent features common to the history of all 
civilized nations. There will be found five well-marked 
phases, — a political, a religious, an educational, an indus- 
trial, and a. social phase. These are further differentiated 
by the fact that each has a great organization, called an 
institution, around which it clusters, and whose purpose, 
plan of work, and machinery are peculiar to itself. For 
political ideas the center is the institution called govern- 
ment ; for religious ideas, the church ; for educational and 
culture influences, the school ; for industrial life, occupa- 
tion ; and for social customs, the family. But there was a 
time when these elements of life were not so fully differ- 
entiated. The primitive history of all peoples shows that, 
in the beginning, institutional life presented itself to 
man's consciousness as a simple and undivided whole. 
Abraham did not separate in thought his political from 
his religious duties ; nor did he think of his business and 
social interests as different and disconnected. In his day 
there were only the germs of a government, a church, 
and a school ; and these were so interwoven with other 
interests that they constituted one great life. But between 
then and now the principle of differentiation has done its 
work so perfectly that we often think of the government 
without the church coming into mind, and so with the 
other institutions. These institutions have become great 
crystallized centers of life around which the thoughts and 
feelings of a people grow. 



12 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

Growth becomes permanent by being embodied, through 
law or custom, in its appropriate institution. Growth in 
political thought and feeling finds entrance into govern- 
ment ; public sentiment, under the pressure of war, abol- 
ished slavery in this country, and the result was written 
in our constitution ; the rise of political parties has added 
many new customs to our method of president-making. A 
movement in religious sentiment may ultimately embody 
itself in church, creed, or custom. The admission of women 
to colleges on equal terms with men shows that the school 
adjusts itself to the growth of- educational ideas ; the idea 
of a practical education, so called, has spread till all classes 
of schools — the public school, the college, and the uni- 
versity — have felt its touch and have remodeled courses 
of study so as to harmonize with the new idea. Similarly 
this is true of social and industrial life. This crystalliza- 
tion of institutional thought and feeling makes progress 
possible, — a given generation profiting by the labor of the 
one that is past, and building for the one that is to come. 

But this is not all gain ; for an idea, after embodiment in 
institutions through formal enactment or by well-established 
custom, tends to cease growing ; it becomes very largely a 
conservative force, and hinders to some extent further 
progress. The established order in society sets itself up 
in the minds of people as an ideal to be maintained, and 
public sentiment moves away only after another and differ- 
ent ideal wins the people to its support. 

Unless public opinion is unanimous, it is impossible to 
embody it completely in a rule of action. In most cases, 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 13 

even after successful revolution, there is a form of the 
dominant sentiment too radical to gain the support of a 
majority. The unembodied sentiment may constitute the 
germs of a new movement, and under appropriate condi- 
tions may produce a conscious difference between what is 
and what ought to be. When this difference becomes 
marked, a conflict usually follows ; it may be only a 
spirited controversy ; it may be a new revolution. In the 
latter case, public sentiment is marked by a high degree 
of consciousness, by great intensity of passion and the 
destruction of old forms of thought and action, and by the 
rapid development of new phases. 

It often happens in movements attended by the display 
of passion that many temporary and extraneous phases of 
sentiment appear, catch the ear of a faction, then disappear 
and cease to affect either of the great currents of thought 
and feeling. 

From this examination of the law of differentiation as 
applied to the growth of institutional life as a whole, and 
to the embodiment of growth in permanent forms, certain 
inferences may be drawn : 

1. That the phenomena of history may be grouped in 
five different classes ; that history is not confined to the 
study of politics, but includes the entire life of a people. 1 

1 It is interesting to note the progress made on this point by our 
school histories. The earlier texts gave large space to military ex- 
ploits of all kinds, particularly those with the Indians. This class of 
works was followed by another that gave less attention to war and 
more to the study of political events, but ignoring, in the main, the 
other four phases of life. Many of these texts are now in use in 



14 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

2. That there are five lines of growth that move on 
down through the life of a people and give linear continuity 
to the subject, and, therefore, a clue to the method of its 
organization. 

3. That each of these phases of a people's thought 
clusters around and becomes embodied in a great and per- 
manent institution. 

4. That the more advanced phases of sentiment do not, 
for the time, become embodied in either law or custom, and 
thus they form germs that may produce a conflict between 
what is and what ought to be. Hence the student must 
take account of ideas and sentiments that fail to find accept- 
ance with the majority. 

The Five Phases not always of Coordinate Historical 
Value. — While these great ganglia of humanity's life are 
all structurally essential to its well-being, yet they are not, 
at all times and in all movements of that life, of equal, his- 
torical value. Movements, large or small, have been char- 
acterized usually by the predominance of one of these 
phases. Now it is the religious, again the political ; and at 
another time the social and economic are so blended in the 
movement that neither seems to dominate ; often, as will 
be demonstrated below, the results may be profoundly felt 
in every phase of institutional life, and yet very seldom 
are found equally distributed among them. 

Political institutions absorb public attention in our age 
more than any others. This is partly an epochal tei 

schools. But another kind of history text is beginning to find favor, 
one that takes account of the whole life of the people. 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 15 

for it was hardly true of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. But it seems mainly true now because govern- 
mental functions have been so extended as to have over- 
sight of all other interests. At least, government undertakes 
to adjust the interests of the various institutions so as to 
promote the best life of the whole and of its parts. While 
each institution reacts upon government, yet it effects this 
indirectly, and more or less unconsciously. The state, 
therefore, gives direction not only to political history, 
but to some extent to all history. Since politics is not 
political only, it seems proper that the political phase of 
life should constitute a greater portion of history than any 
other. 1 

The Organic Unity of Institutional Life. — Although 
the process of differentiation has given us five well-marked 
sets of institutional ideas, yet the principle of continuity 
teaches us to look for their organic unity. Some illustra- 
tions will set forth this life-connection between the phases. 

The French and Indian war was a great military event, 
and, as such, belonged immediately to the domain of gov- 
ernment. It produced, as we should expect, great political 
results, but besides these there flowed from it religious 
and industrial consequences of almost infinite importance. 
This struggle decided that North America should become 
a new home for English Protestantism, and that French 
Catholicism must return to European soil. This result lifted 
; -load from the minds and hearts of the English 

1 Whether this ought to be so may perhaps he a question, but that 
it is so is not a question, whatever the explanation. 



16 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

colonists. Yet, even if victory had belonged to France, 
the religious effect would have been just as great, and the 
principle of historical growth would have been as fully 
illustrated. Again, this war brought into personal contact 
the Puritan, the Baptist, the Dutchman, and the Cavalier ; 
they messed together, marched together, and fought to- 
gether; they shared each other's joys and sorrows, victories 
and defeats. Seven years of this and other forms of mu- 
tual intercourse did much to tone down religious exclusive- 
ness and prejudice. A series of military events thus pro- 
duced profound religious effects. This war also decided 
that free instead of parochial schools should bless America ; 
and yet more, for it destroyed the possibility of French 
family and social life. This long struggle also burdened 
both England and the colonies with heavy debts. The 
former tried to lighten her load by putting new burdens on 
the trade of the latter. The colonies replied by refusing 
to have commercial intercourse with England, and began 
to develop their own resources, which led the way to com- 
mercial as well as to political independence. So much for 
the political, religious, educational, industrial, and social 
effects of a series of military events. 

The American Revolution was a mighty political upheaval 
whose forces are not yet spent. The American people 
came out of this struggle with greatly modified social, moral, 
and religious ideas and feelings. 

Let us push our examination further by looking at a 
form of growth that did not have its origin in politics. 
The planters at Jamestown took that first cargo of dusky 



ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HISTORY. 17 

freight purely as a business venture ; they simply asked 
how to raise tobacco in the easiest and cheapest way ; they 
had no thought of its bearing on the other forms of insti- 
tutional life. The venture proved successful and the 
system of slave labor filled the South. But slavery gave 
the master and his children wealth and leisure, while to 
the non-slaveholding white, it brought poverty and toil ; 
he could not win a competence for himself and family in 
competition with slave labor ; whatever his ambition, the 
poor white could hardly break over the industrial barrier 
that slavery built between him and success. The children 
of the planter could be educated, but this institution which 
began as a business venture denied to the child of the non- 
slaveholder an opportunity for an education ; poverty could 
not educate its children, and slavery refused to build free 
schools. These differences drew a sharp line through 
Southern social life. There was little friendship between 
the two classes of families, for this industrial venture had 
given into the hands of one class all the social amenities 
that wealth, leisure, and intelligence could bring, while to 
the other class all of these were denied. All these influ- 
ences made the slaveholder the politician of the South ; no 
other class was so well fitted for statesmanship. He was 
the most desirable man to send to the colonial legisla- 
tures, and afterwards to the National Congress. This 
industrial venture seemed to favor office-holding, for the 
South, at all times, furnished a larger proportion of na- 
tional officials, according to her population, than any other 
section of the country. In the colonial legislatures, the 



18 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

slaveholder passed laws that favored the development of 
this industrial system. In the nation at large, slavery- 
organized and destroyed political parties, dictated the 
nomination of candidates for the presidency, defeated can- 
didates opposed to its interests, declared war, and made 
treaties. Not only did this industrial system thus mold 
the politics of our country, but it also colored the moral 
and religious thought and feeling of the entire nation ; it 
forced Southern pulpits to manipulate Holy Writ in its 
defence ; it rent in twain religious organizations that were 
hoary with age. Thus we see that negro slavery, an indus- 
trial institution in its origin, affected most profoundly 
every phase of our institutional life. 

If this analysis be correct, the following conclusions 
may be drawn : 

1. That the life of a people is an organic whole ; that 
this life is one mighty stream of five currents moving on 
toward one goal ; that there is not one destiny for govern- 
ment, another for the church, another still for the school, 
and a different one for industrial and social interests, but 
that all these constitute one life with one destiny. 

2. That the student must trace transverse and intricate, 
as well as parallel, lines of growth in the subject of his- 
tory ; that he must take each great event and each great 
series of events, and discover the extent to which many 
or all of the institutions are affected, thus producing in 
his own mind a body of organized knowledge which shall 
be the subjective counterpart of that objective unity found 
in the life of a people. 



PROCESSES INVOLVED IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 

The General Nature of Organization. — The general 
principles wrought out in the preceding pages throw some 
light on the possibility of organizing historical material. 
It is now proposed to ask how the mind takes what appears 
at first view as disconnected and isolated facts of history 
and organizes them into a consistent body of knowlege ; 
to state and illustrate the particular processes through 
which this material goes, and the final form it takes in 
the mind of the student. This will make clear the trans- 
formation of historical matter into a system of thought. 

The analysis of the processes involved in organizing a 
subject makes the student conscious of the so-called scien- 
tific view of the subject. Science declares that every 
subject of investigation presents two sets of facts for 
organization, generals and individuals, — laws and princi- 
ples on the one hand, and particular and specific phenomena 
on the other. Neither set viewed alone constitutes the 
subject, nor do both, taken merely in the aggregate ; it is 
only when the mind grasps these two sets of facts in their 
organic unity that we have a subject in the true scientific 
sense. The relation is a vital one, for science declares that 
principles x are originally discovered by the examination of 

1 Principles in history resemble all others in being general in their 
nature, and differ from some in being active forces moving to the 



20 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

individual facts, while the latter are to be looked upon as 
the concrete embodiment of principles ; in other words, if 
the mind begins with one it must pass to the other and back 
again in order to realize the scientific ideal so far as organ- 
ization is concerned. The problem of organization, there- 
fore, is really the problem of constructing a science, that 
is, of discovering, stating, and explaining the relations 
between these two sets of facts. 

Organization is, therefore, a mental process and not a 
mechanical one. No subject, as many teachers unfortu- 
nately think, can be organized in a notebook or on a black- 
board. At best, such an arrangement of words and signs 
can only suggest a few of the relations and processes 
involved in organization. Too often systems of lines, 
braces, and brackets delude the mind and become a sub- 
stitute for that real organization which can only take 
place in the thinking mind. 

The Organizing Principle of History. — There is a 
central principle in every subject which sets it off from 
every other subject, and at the same time is the very core 
of its every phase and fact. 1 In history we have found 
this central principle to be the growth of institutional 

production of the individual facts through which they express them- 
selves. Like most principles, they inhere in content rather than in 
form, and vary in degree of generality from those found in a few indi- 
vidual facts to those sweeping in all the individuals of the subject. 

1 A fact may be found in one or in many subjects according as 
it contains the central idea of one or many subjects. The same fact 
may appear in biology, geology, and history, but in each case it is 
related to a different principle and exhibits a different content. 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 21 

life, because this idea touches and is touched by all the 
great events which mark the course of human destiny. 
Some events have helped and some have hindered the 
evolution of institutional life, but all have been related to 
it. Not only is this principle fundamental to all events, 
but also to all sub-phases of human thought and feeling, 
whether they have characterized periods of calm or 
periods of agitation, — periods of evolution or periods of 
revolution. 1 

The Fundamental Processes in Organization. — We 
have already learned that organization names the proc- 
esses by which the mind arranges the material of a sub- 
ject according to its inherent relations. Based upon the 
relations between the principles of history and its par- 
ticular facts, historical organization has two fundamental 
processes : 

1. Interpretation, which gives the basis for integration 
and division ; 

2. Coordination and subordination, which results in 
the proper selection and ranking of facts. 

THE PROCESS OF INTERPRETATION. 

Nature and Kinds. 

Definition of Interpretation. — Interpretation is the 
process by which the mind puts meaning or content into 

1 Some excellent thinkers in history express the universal organiz- 
ing principle of history in terms of rational freedom. Perhaps the 
only practical ohjection to this statement of the principle is that it is 
too abstract to permit a statement of subordinate phases. 



22 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

individual facts. This is a universal process and goes on 
wherever mind, and object meet. In each individual fact 
two phases of content are discovered by interpretation : 
one phase is common to many other facts, while the other 
is peculiar to the interpreted fact. When interpretation 
reveals a content common to many individuals the basis 
of integration is found, while the discovery of the particu- 
larizing element furnishes the ground for division. 

In history the process of interpretation is carried on by 
discovering the growth of institutional life in particular 
events or in some more individual phase of thought and 
feeling. There are thus two kinds of interpretation in 
history ; one puts content into events, and the other puts 
content into subordinate phases of institutional life. 

The Interpretation of Events. — Here external occur- 
rences are viewed as the sign of some internal movement 
of the, people's thought and feeling. To discover this 
movement through its sign, the event, is to interpret the 
latter. We have learned that just as a word is the sign 
of an idea, so is the act of a people the sign of their ideas 
and feelings. The event is the more easily interpreted 
because a people in conscious action generally selects the 
kind of event best adapted to give expression to its states 
of thought and feeling. 

The full meaning of an event is obtained by viewing it 
under two relations : 1. As a product of a preceding 
movement in thought and feeling. Here the event is 
seen to emerge from the concrete life of a people and to 
be a natural and normal result of surrounding conditions. 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 23 

In other words, the event is viewed as a sort of receptacle 
into which the preceding current of public sentiment flows, 
and which it really created in the course of its develop- 
ment. 2. The second step in the interpretation of an 
event is to view it as a factor producing changes in the 
movement out of which it grew. Here the event returns, 
as it were, into the stream of institutional life, and works 
there those changes which it is capable of producing as 
cause. Both of these points of view of the content of an 
event are necessary to its complete interpretation. If the 
event to be interpreted is a great one or is long continued, 
then a third step must be taken, namely, to see how public 
opinion changes while the event is in the process of occur- 
ring. The excitement of action intensifies thinking, and 
produces changes in the minds of the persons involved. 
These changes are often very great, as in the case of a 
series of events, such as a war. Sometimes this is the 
only means of accounting for the changes set on foot by 
the event. In such instances, this intermediate step would 
become second in the process of interpreting an event. 
Some illustration of the interpretation of events will serve 
to make the conception more accurate. 

The founding of Jamestown was an external event, and 
it remains such to the student until it is discovered to be 
the product and the sign of England's desire to extend her 
institutions and interests to the western continent. Further 
content is given to this event when its success is seen to 
stimulate the national desire for colonial empire. 

The formation of societies for non-importation by the 



24 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

colonial merchants is an event to be interpreted. In gene- 
ral, this is to be done by discovering in these organizations 
an idea reaching further than they did, and which appears 
as content in a wider range of events, and also by discover- 
ing in them a form of sentiment peculiar to them. The 
idea found as the content in these events is that of union 
then (1765) growing up and beginning to control the acts of 
the colonists from Maine to Georgia. We put union into 
these organizations by discovering that they are caused by 
the agitation for organized resistance to the Stamp Act. In 
doing this the student views this series of events as the 
natural outgrowth of the movement toward union begun 
before 1765. But he must take another step, and trace the 
immediate effect of these participations in organizations on 
the further growth of the sentiment of union, and thus 
gather their contribution to this great struggle. This is 
done by watching how cooperation in their formation and 
functions roused a stronger sentiment, — how it made 
aggressive the society of the Sons of Liberty ; gave origin 
to the Daughters of Liberty with their organizations for 
the promotion of household production and the develop- 
ment of an infectious enthusiasm for American liberty ; 
and finally how it stimulated those lower passions of hate 
and spite between the friends and foes of the new move- 
ment, and made each firmer in the position taken. But 
the student must go further in his interpretation, and trace 
the effect of non-importation upon American thought and 
feeling. He must see how the merchants gained greater 
confidence in union and cooperation through these organi- 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 25 

zations, since by them they entailed an immense industrial 
loss upon the English merchant, manufacturer, and laborer. 
Here the student ought to see the consternation of these 
classes : of the merchant as no more orders for goods came 
from America, of the manufacturer as he closed his estab- 
lishment or discharged a portion of his laborers, of the 
latter as they ceased to draw wages, and were unable to 
pay debts and to buy food ; and the united action of all 
these in storming parliament with petitions, and finally 
the great speeches in that body which reveal changing 
national sentiment in favor of repeal. In these facts he 
will discover the true explanation of how fidelity to union 
was exalted into a virtue, and how opposition was regarded 
as a crime, how non-importation began to be looked upon 
as an efficient means of commercial retaliation, which 
lasted long after the revolution was over. 

It may not be amiss to explain here how the process of 
interpretation cannot be carried on. It is customary, when 
explaining the non-importation societies, simply to say that 
" they were caused by the Stamp Act." For the student, 
this may or may not be true. In one sense it cannot be 
true, for one external act has little if any direct historical 
influence over another. The Stamp Act and the non-impor- 
tation societies, as external facts pictured in imagination, 
were three thousand miles apart and could not touch each 
other. Let us suppose that physical contact is not meant. 
Can the teacher be certain from the statement quoted what 
is meant ? Ordinarily it would not mean that the relation 
to public sentiment had been traced ; that these organiza- 



26 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

tions had been seen to grow out of, and back into, this sen- 
timent. Perhaps the pnpil is left to the ingenuity of his 
own imagination to discover the true relations between 
these events. So long as that imagination passes directly 
from one event to another, no possibility of interpretation 
exists, for one individual fact has no interpretative power 
over another of the same rank. 

The Interpretation of Phases of Institutional Life. — 
The fact that the principles of a subject vary in degree of 
generality, and that the less general phases of institutional 
growth are phases of some more general movement, makes 
the process of interpretation possible for this class of his- 
torical facts. This form of interpretation may be illus- 
trated in a brief manner by the following example. The 
dominant idea in forming the Confederation, the cause for 
which the small states struggled in the convention of 1787, 
the principle in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, the 
recommendations of the Hartford convention, the doctrine 
of nullification as set forth by Calhoun and South Carolina, 
and the principle of secession, were only phases of the 
same great idea, — the sovereignty of the state. For the 
mind to discover the identity of this general institutional 
idea with this large number of apparently isolated and 
particular phases, is to interpret them. The meaning of 
each particular phase is greatly enriched by discovering 
in it the principle of state sovereignty. Other illustra- 
tions on a large scale may be found in the phases of union 
developed during the revolution, and also in the sentiment 
of nationality from 1789 to 1860. 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 27 



Forms of Thought and Sentiment as Discovered in 

Interpretation. 

Causes. — It must be apparent, already, that the process 
of interpretation aims to put the student into close and inti- 
mate contact with the people whose life he studies. How 
to make events and other facts adequately reflect that life 
is a vital question in teaching history. In order to do this, 
at least all the important phases of thought and sentiment 
in a given movement must be reached. All the various color- 
ings that public opinion puts on in its process of growth 
will serve to deepen and enrich impressions. To see the 
way in which these various effects are produced in insti- 
tutional life greatly aids their interpretation. In fact it is 
absolutely essential to right interpretation that history be 
conceived as a process. But it is difficult to view it as 
such, although we have seen this to be a fundamental char- 
acteristic of its content. The imagination is prone to pic- 
ture scenes and situations and thus deceive the judgment 
into thinking history statical. This false view is best 
corrected by constantly tracing the influences and forces 
that produce the historical process. Such factors are 
denominated causes, but they are such to the student only 
when traced into the current of institutional life. It is 
quite fashionable now to go outside the historical field into 
the domain of geology, geography, and so on, to find the 
causes of the historical process. This is entirely proper 
and necessary, provided the student can trace these extra- 



28 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

historical causes into the current of human thought and 
feeling and note there the changes made. Only in this 
way can other subjects contribute to the interpretation of' 
history. 

We have already seen that in the general process of in- 
terpretation the student must put into the event the public 
sentiment that precedes and succeeds it. In doing this 
the mind looks upon the movement of this sentiment as 
a cause producing the event; and as an effect partly pro- 
duced by the event. We thus see that the content of 
events may be viewed as both cause and effect. It will 
make interpretation clearer if we look at the nature of 
historical causes. 

Positive and Negative Causes. — On the basis of their 
essential nature we may class causes as positive or negative. 
Public sentiment^ or any force which molds public senti- 
ment, is positive when by virtue of its essential nature it 
tends to progress, tends to promote civilization. A posi- 
tive cause is constructive in intent and being. A negative 
cause is a phase of public sentiment or a force which tends, 
from its inherent nature, to be destructive, or at least 
obstructive ; it tends to stand in the way of progress. 
Thus the sentiment that favored union in the colonies 
against the aggression of England was positive, while the 
attitude of king and parliament was negative. The sen- 
timent in favor of a strong government during the Con- 
federation was a positive cause, for, in its nature, it was 
progresssive and constructive ; while the opposition to the 
adoption of the Constitution was a negative cause, for the 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 29 

reason that it tended, from its nature, to hinder progress. 
The causes of the Civil War, or of any great war, may 
be classified in the same way. If revolutions be compared 
as to the number of positive and negative causes, it will be 
found that the greater number of negative causes belong 
to the most destructive revolutions, while the number of 
positive causes increases as the revolution approaches the 
character of an evolution in institutional life. Hence the 
interpretative value of classifying the causes of a move- 
ment in history under these categories. 1 

Fundamental and Particular Causes. — In viewing the 
contents of events as active forces, a more valuable classi- 
fication of causes may be found based upon differences in 
the degree of generality in the content. On this basis the 
student will discover that some are particular and special, 
while others are general and fundamental. The particular 
and the general, we have seen, bear a vital relation to each 
other in every department of knowledge. Hence, to be 
able to discover a series of causes as particular phases of 
some greater truth means not only more perfect interpre- 
tation, but is a long step toward organization in the form 
of integration. An illustration will make this clear. Let 

1 Careful analysis will reveal that positive movements produce at 
times negative results. The American Revolution, as a whole, was a 
mighty, positive force, making for progress in almost every phase of 
institutional life, and yet many of its results were negative. Likewise 
negative causes may produce positive results. The Boston Port Bill 
was negative, and yet it produced many positive results. In all such 
cases some factor intervenes to turn the cause toward an effect oppo- 
site in nature. 



30 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

us take the causes of the decline of the Confederation. 
Here they are, as frequently seen in text-books : 

1. The Confederation had no executive or judicial 
department. 

2. Congress could not raise an army. 

3. No power of direct or indirect taxation was given to 
the Confederation. 

4. Congress had no control over domestic commerce. 

5. Congress could not enforce treaties with other 
nations. 

6. The Confederation operated on states and not on 
individuals. 

7. The Articles of Confederation recognized the sov- 
ereignty of the state. 

8. Voting in congress was by states. 

9. The people owed allegiance to the state only. 

The effect of these and of other causes that might be 
named was the destruction of the Confederation. As causes 
they were forces in the process of working out the result 
indicated. The student must see them as such — must 
witness them in this process — if the right interpretation 
is to be made and a proper value set on each cause as a 
factor in the result. But there are three views, any one 
of which he may take. He may look upon these state- 
ments as expressing a given amount of historical fact, 
statistical in its nature, which may be learned by using 
memory, thus gaining no interpretation. Again, the stu- 
dent may see each of these as a real force moving toward 
its own result. Each is thus only an individual and 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 31 

isolated cause and hence of little organizing value. This 
is always the result of seeing only a series of direct or 
particular causes. 

The above points of view may be taken without the con- 
sciousness of the fundamental cause coming into the stu- 
dent's mind. In this state of mind he sees no connection 
between the first cause given above and the last one. The 
identity of causes two, three, four, and so on, with the 
last cause in the list is not perceived. The only con- 
nection, the only kinship among these causes that this 
view gives is that each aids, as a cause, in producing the 
same result, — the downfall of the Confederation. This 
process is vastly superior to the first named, for it 
yields more discipline and a better understanding of the 
subject. 

Another view may be taken : the general or fundamental 
cause may be found and the others may be interpreted 
with reference to it. The careful comparison and contrast 
of the causes listed above will show that the first eight 
are closely related to the ninth cause. By common con- 
sent, when the colonists transferred their allegiance from 
England, they gave it on all domestic concerns primarily 
to their respective colonial governments. The Continental 
Congress recognized this relation in creating the Confedera- 
tion by making the states, in the main, sovereign. Wherever 
primary allegiance is placed, there sovereignty will reside. 
This shows that allegiance conditions sovereignty, and 
that cause seven is the result of cause nine. Great men 
like Madison and Hamilton attributed much of the Con- 



32 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

federation's weakness to the fact that it did not operate on 
individuals. The truth is that the Confederation had no 
individuals — citizens — on which to operate. The people 
were citizens of the states, because they had placed their 
allegiance there, hence cause nine is the cause of cause six. 
Why could not congress enforce treaties made by itself ? 
Who violated such treaties ? Evidently the citizens of 
the states. What power had congress over them? None, 
since they owed allegiance to their respective states. 
Thus cause five is the effect of cause nine. The fourth 
cause in the list bears a similar relation to the last one. 
Logically, the framers of the Confederation could not have 
given the Confederation control over domestic commerce 
after recognizing that the people owed it no direct alle- 
giance. It would simply have aggravated the situation if 
the Confederation had been given executive and judicial 
departments. The attempt of the executive to enforce the 
laws of congress or execute the decisions of the judges 
would have brought the states and the Confederation into 
violent collision, for the citizens of the states would have 
been constantly appealing to their own authorities for pro- 
tection. The men who made the Articles were more logical 
than some of their critics have been. 

In the same way the remaining particular causes of the 
fall of the Confederation may be traced to the fundamental 
cause, thus illustrating its interpreting value, as compared 
with the other possible ways of viewing the causes of this 
great event in American history. From every point of 
view we must see that the reduction of these causes to 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 33 

their highest terms is vastly more to be desired than either 
of the other methods of working with them. 

It thus appears possible to reduce a series of particular 
causes to one fundamental one, or at least to a few. In 
no subject is it more difficult than in history to reduce 
diversity to unity. The constant tendency of the student, 
especially in dealing with causes, is to enumerate facts 
which have obvious differences and take it for granted that 
a new fact has been discovered, when in truth the new 
fact may be only another embodiment of a general idea 
which has already been often discovered in other particular 
facts. A similar study of the causes of the Civil War will 
show like results, the reduction of a larger number of 
particular causes to one, slavery, or at most two, slavery 
and state sovereignty. This illustration is an example of 
the process of interpreting great movements as a whole in 
the light of their causes, and may also be viewed as illus- 
trating the interpretation of particular phases of thought * 
rather than the interpretation of events. It is very 
apparent that the teacher may set his class a very inter- 
esting and valuable problem : Analyze the particular causes 
for a general cause and show how the general cause is 
found in each particular cause. 

The classification applied to causes may be extended to 
effects with the same educational advantages. The inter- 
pretation of a movement as a whole not only requires a 
study of causes but also of its effects, for the nature of 

1 Other illustrations of this most important form of interpretation 
will be given under the various periods. 



34 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

a movement is partly expressed in its results. Results 
reflect to a large extent the movement as a whole which 
produced them. Hence to classify these as positive or 
negative and as general or particular is to give a fuller 
understanding of the movement. 

Purpose and Means. — The process of interpretation is 
not complete if it leaves out of the content of historical 
facts the intention and motives of men. The ambition of 
a single great man, the plans and purposes of men in 
organizations — societies, parties, armies, or nations — are 
factors in the movement of history. In truth, most of the 
physical forces of history are transformed and enter human 
consciousness as motives and ends on account of which men 
struggle. 

Causes and effects may come and go in history for a long 
time without arresting the attention of the people, or 
at most, without absorbing enough notice by touching 
their interests to create a conscious effort for a well- 
defined end. As long as this is true, the categories of 
cause and effect are sufficient to account for and to inter- 
pret historical movements. But when causes and their 
effects begin to be more widely recognized, men assume a 
new attitude toward them. As the movement increases in 
intensity, persons arise who seek to promote or retard it, 
or it may be, to use it for other and ulterior ends. When 
this stage is reached, the student must always take into 
account the transformation that has taken place. What 
was once an unconscious moving energy becomes now a 
great stream of thought and activity marching toward 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 35 

some well-defined goal. A striking illustration of this 
transformation of cause and effect into means and end is 
seen in the growth of sentiment that made the Civil War 
possible. Without trying to be very specific we may say 
that one of the causes of the struggle was the estrangement 
that grew up between the two sections. This result was 
of slow growth, its roots extending far back into colonial 
days. But in that early time no one recognized or took 
account of it, — its work was going on silently. It was not 
until the first quarter of this century that even great 
statesmen in both sections began to bestow upon it any- 
thing like continuous thought. The Missouri struggle 
was the first event to call general attention to the grow- 
ing gulf, and although the Webster-Hayne debate, nulli- 
fication by South Carolina, and the struggle for the right 
of petition attracted still wider attention to the disparity 
in thought and feeling between the two sections, yet the 
idea of their estrangement took great hold on only a few 
minds. From now on Webster and Clay are devoted, each 
in his way, to the preservation of the Union, while Calhoun, 
perhaps unconsciously, gives up his life to a cause that 
could only promote the growing estrangement of the two 
portions ; yet it is plain that the majority of the people 
at this time did not take the question into their thoughts 
and feelings and resolve to accomplish certain ends, — one 
part of the people had not yet resolved to give its life to 
secession or the other to the preservation of the Union. 
More and more, however, these ideas began to win men 
to their support, till, in the latter part of the fifties, as 



36 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

the old parties were dissolving under the pressure of the 
conflict, the two sections stood arrayed against each other, 
one marshalling its forces under the banner of secession 
and the other under the flag of the Union. Yet even at 
the opening of the war the sections were not agreed 
among themselves as to the supreme end of the conflict. 
For in the South some held to secession only as a 
means to preserve slavery, while in the North some still 
called for the destruction of slavery as the highest aim 
of the war. 

Other illustrations will be found in the organizing ideas 
of the various periods. The same law of growth — the 
transformation of causes and effects into purposes and 
means — will be seen. The mastery of this relation between 
these two pairs of categories is essential in the explanation 
of great movements in history. It will be seen how inade- 
quate an explanation is that which rests on causes and 
effects alone, or upon purposes and means alone. It 
should be made clear that purposes and motives often 
arise out of conditions and in the presence of facts that 
may be called causes, and that these causes are modified 
by the purposes they originate and the means used in 
their realization. 

The effort to attain ends projected by men as individuals 
or as nations will give rise to a series of events. This 
suggests that purposes are causes. In fact, it is rightly 
held that the purpose of an event, if it have one, is its true 
cause. At least the peculiar form of the event is due to 
the fact that it comes into being as a means to accomplish 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 37 

a result that exists in idea before the event takes place. 
This difference the student must always detect between an 
event resulting from an ordinary cause and one that results 
from a purpose. For on the difference in the form of 
events depends the conclusion as to whether they result 
from conscious or unconscious thought and feeling. The 
conventions in the various states that met to consider the 
question of ratifying the Constitution, took their peculiar 
form as events from the nature of the end they were to 
subserve. Their adaptation to the end in view existed in 
the thought of the people before the conventions existed in 
fact. We cannot say that the Stamp Act Congress was in 
the minds of British statesmen as an end to be accomplished 
by the passage of the Stamp Act. But one cause of the 
Stamp Act Congress did exist in thought before it did in 
fact, namely, the determination to secure the repeal of the 
Stamp Act. The men who passed the act did not con- 
sciously plan to arrange the act so that it would produce a 
congress of the colonies, but the men who secured the 
repeal of the act did consciously plan the congress to that 
end. There is, then, a greater degree of adaptation between 
the purpose and its means than between the cause and its 
effect. This greater degree of adaptation often suggests a 
difference in the content of the two classes of events, 
especially on the side of feeling. The event or the series 
of events created by the people for the attainment of some 
cherished end is permeated by an intensity of feeling that 
is impossible in events that come into being more or less 
unconsciously. 



38 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

Without this idea many series of events could hardly be 
organized. How could the individual facts of a military 
campaign become intelligible unless the student can illumi- 
nate them by the design of the head of the army ? How 
shall it profit a student if he learn the numbers and disci- 
pline of the army, the amount and kind of arms and stores, 
the position of the troops, the character of the country, the 
movements of the battle, the stratagems employed, without 
seeing the common idea in each, — the idea that makes an 
intelligible whole, — the purpose of the general. Of a 
series of events used as "means the end must be seen in 
each. This is discovered in two ways : 1. By noting how 
the means are adapted to secure the given end. This point 
has just been illustrated. 2. By watching the means in 
the process of working out the end in view. The very 
nature of a means requires that it shall take part in a pro- 
cess, otherwise the end could never be actualized. If the 
student fails to witness this process, he fails to get at least 
one-half of the relation which means bears to end. It is 
easy to say or to learn that Hamilton's bank aimed to 
strengthen the national government. It is quite another 
thing to trace the steps by which this end was realized. No 
doubt Hamilton and Washington and the leading Federal- 
ists saw the bank in the process of bringing into real exist- 
ence a result that once existed in their thoughts and desires 
only. The student, to reach a correct interpretation, must 
see this means moving to its end just as the men who 
observed it did. He must observe that the creation of the 
institution called into existence, in spite of a most deter- 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 39 

mined opposition, the doctrine of implied powers ; that the 
stock of the bank was taken up by business men with great 
avidity, thus binding certain capitalists to the government 
by ties of interest, and giving confidence to other business 
men ; the student must see how the presence of uniform 
bank notes payable in specie impressed the people with the 
wisdom of the new plan and the weakness of the old ; 
how the credit of the nation in the eyes of foreigners was 
raised by having a responsible financial agent through 
which it could secure loans. And finally, he must discover 
that the bank's objects were so perfectly secured that its 
original enemies were lessened, its recharter defeated in 
1811 by but one vote in the lower house, and was carried 
in 1816. In some such way the student must watch and 
trace means in the very process by which their ends are 
attained. Otherwise a set of means becomes a mere collec- 
tion of mechanically related facts. 

Immediate and Remote Ends. — In the process of inter- 
pretation it is helpful to distinguish between immediate 
and remote ends. The difference here is mainly one of 
degree. A remote purpose is one that can be secured by 
the use of many intermediate steps ; but the people may 
project a purpose into each step. The people as a whole 
come more easily to the contemplation of immediate than 
remote ends. The probability of speedy attainment seems 
necessary to stimulate the majority of men to enthusi- 
astic devotion to a cause. Only statesmen, philanthro- 
pists, and reformers seem able to strive with persistent 
zeal for ends whose fulfillment may belong to the remote 



40 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

future. The student must see, therefore, that, as a rule, 
the more immediate the purpose he finds in an event or 
series, the closer he is getting to the mind and heart of the 
people as a whole concerned in the undertaking. But 
while this is true, at the same time he is dealing with ends 
that are to the leaders of a people's destiny only so many 
means in the process of attaining remote and more pro- 
found objects. It thus becomes necessary, if the student 
masters the thought and feeling of any period in its com- 
pleteness, to compass both the immediate and the remote 
ends and aims that moved the people of that time. 

The levying of the tax on tea in 1767 had for its imme- 
diate end the collection of a revenue on tea and some other 
articles. This seemed to most of the people of England 
and America the chief end in view. But by the leaders in 
both countries the raising of a revenue was looked upon 
as a means, while the ultimate end to be reached was the 
submission of America to parliamentary authority. In 
America the great mass of the people had before them- 
selves resistance to the tax by the formation of non- 
importation and non-exportation societies, while the leaders 
in the agitation looked upon these efforts as mere means in 
the accomplishment of a remote and more universal end, 
— the acknowledgment that Americans were entitled to 
the rights of Englishmen. To get the full content of this 
struggle, the student must find the motives of all parties 
engaged in it. 

In the efforts to attain their ends men and nations 
bring about results which were not planned by them, and 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 41 

whose occurrence they could not foresee. Men may plan 
and arrange means to carry out definite ends, but effects of 
an opposite nature often result from their efforts. Passion, 
interest, and selfishness may be the motive and the end, 
yet out of these may come results that will bless posterity 
to the remotest generations. The selfishness of slavery 
annexed Texas and brought on war with Mexico, from 
which was wrested an imperial domain. Yet how different 
the remote result from the immediate aim. Morris' Hegel 
contains the following on this general point : 

" The particular historic event exists by the grace of the 
particular volition of a particular human being ; it is im- 
mediately what the individual intended, and is explained 
by his intention, but by the grace of God it acquires a 
character beyond what was intended, requiring a deeper 
and broader explanation. The whole interest and thought 
of the individual may be practically confined to his imme- 
diate personal aims and restricted plans. Beyond them he 
may not consciously see ; to aught beside them he may be 
indifferent. But the sequel shows them to have been the 
material for the accomplishment of a plan of history, 
which is none other than the realization on this planet of 
self-consciousness and self-mastering spiritual existence, 
passing himself through knowledge and control of a natural 
world of which he is the crown, and through knowledge 
and love of a God who is the ultimate ground and the 
eternal goal of all travail both of Nature and of Man. 
Thus God makes even the wrath of man to praise 
him." 



42 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

This view makes the whole process of history — all its 
events and all ambitions of men and of nations — a means 
in the working ont of the Divine Ideal. 



Material Presented for Interpretation. 

Second-hand Material. — The facts of history come to 
the student in all stages of interpretation. The ordinary 
narrative text-book mainly confines itself to a description 
of the externals of history while adding some statements 
about ideas and sentiments. If the events are presented 
fully enough, the teacher will have an excellent opportu- 
nity to train to interpretation by means of inferences as 
to the content of events. But since the power to infer 
specific content from the form of the event is limited, there 
is need of a larger presentation of the facts in order to 
obtain a fuller interpretation. These facts may sometimes 
come from the teacher, but better from the students by the 
use of larger works as references. The demands of accu- 
rate interpretation will not be met by turning this fuller 
reading into a mere hunt for additional facts, for each 
would demand interpretation ; but since each new fact is an 
element in the greater event, it will make its contribution 
to the interpretation needed, if the right attitude of mind 
is assumed. But if the student is taught by experience to 
expect that an enumeration of facts will be called for, he 
will, consciously or unconsciously, prepare for it. If, how- 
ever, additional and richer meaning of the event is pressed 
for, he will fuse his collection of details into some great idea 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 43 

which he now sees, perhaps for the first time, to be a por- 
tion of the content of the great event. 

The point of view in gathering material to aid in inter- 
pretation is of great consequence, for in still another way 
may it fail of its end. It is often mistakenly believed 
that some unusual value attaches to gathering the opinions 
of the various authorities. In the first place, works of 
similar scope do not vary enough in the amount of matter 
and the peculiarity of opinions to make it worth while 
to search for them. In the second place, even if the 
works are much larger and from a different point of 
view, it is far better for the student to feel that he is 
interpreting history rather than the views of various 
authorities. 

Original Material. — Every historical people leaves be- 
hind, in some form or other, the direct records of its ideas 
and sentiments, customs and institutions. These records 
are the first-hand material out of which history is made, 
and consist, in the main, of official documents setting forth 
the ideas and principles of government ; of the declarations 
of political parties, or the creeds of religious sects ; of the 
speeches before legislative and judicial bodies ; of the cor- 
respondence and diaries of men, great and small ; of orations 
made on the platform, — in short, of any contemporaneous 
writings that express the nature and tendency of public 
sentiment in any period. The value of such material 
largely depends upon the position of its author. If he was 
in a position to speak for a community, a party, or the 
nation, his utterance must be of first importance in ena- 



44 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

bling the student to put the right meaning into the facts 
which he is endeavoring to interpret. Of course, the record 
is of much greater value if it embodies officially the institu- 
tional ideas of the whole community. 

The superiority of this sort of material in the process of 
interpretation may be understood from the following con- 
siderations : 1. The facts thus presented are first-hand — 
unorganized, and the student is left to contend with a real 
problem with no ready-made solution at hand; he must 
work without the author's aid. Without discussing the 
educational value of this sort of work, it is apparent at 
a glance, that a wide difference separates the direct study 
of the Mayflower Compact from the study of a school 
text's statements about this document. 2. This direct 
study brings immediate contact with the source of truth 
concerning the content of the Compact. It is possible that 
texts have been written whose authors did not have first- 
hand access to the material of history, but have written 
from another's interpretation of that material. But what of 
it ? Simply this : the student of such a text will be still 
farther removed from the real source of truth, and like the 
author, not knowing all the concrete facts, or not knowing 
them exactly as they were, may make erroneous interpre- 
tations. 3. Even if the facts obtained in the above way are 
correctly interpreted, there is yet something lacking in the 
effect produced, which can only be supplied by applying 
the process of interpretation to original material. In no 
other way, in the study of historical material, may the 
student get deep and realistic conceptions of the life he 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 45 

studies — ideas and passions, motives and prejudices, and 
all those subtle influences that go to make up concrete 
public sentiment. Take the examples of interpretation 
given above : how much more easily and correctly could 
the student put the right content into the events connected 
with founding Jamestown if he could read the motives of 
king and company in the charters granted, and could add 
to these the opinions of the settlers. Even the writings 
of John Smith, with all their exaggerations, would give 
meaning and reality to these events, such as could come in 
no other way. Again, how can the student get most easily 
and fully into the minds and hearts of the colonial mer- 
chants, the motives and passions that swayed them when 
organizing the non-importation associations ? Evidently 
by reading the addresses sent to king and parliament and 
to the colonial legislatures ; by reading the resolutions of 
town meetings in pledging support ; by studying the cor- 
respondence between the associations of different towns, 
and by following the newspaper and pamphlet war that 
arose over these organizations and their work. Likewise 
with the struggle over state sovereignty, or any other 
phase of thought which the student tries to reach through 
events. Depth of impression and richness of content will 
always come from this sort of face to face contact with a 
people. 

Original matter may be made to serve, as in the case of 
reference histories, merely as another source of individual 
facts. This defeats its use as a means of interpretation. 
In order to make it serve this function truly, the additional 



46 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

matter must be used as a key to the content of the event 
or movement under consideration. The student must not, 
unless he is searching for undiscovered truth, get the idea 
that he is examining records as records to determine their 
historical accuracy. Historical interpretation, and not his- 
torical criticism, is his problem. 

The Educational Value of Interpretation. 

Nature of the Question. — The examination into the 
nature of the process of interpretation has furnished the 
basis for an intelligible answer to the problem of its edu- 
cational value. There are two phases to the question : 
one inquires concerning the effect of interpretation upon 
the crude material of history, and the other concerning 
the resulting mental discipline and development. These 
two phases of the inquiry are intimately related, since both 
at bottom are questions of mental experience and should be 
separated only for convenience in discussion. 

Integration and Unification. — Interpretation produces, 
on the side of knowledge, an integrated or synthesized 
product. Since the ordinary methods of studying history 
do not accomplish this important educational result, it is 
worth while to bring this historical product into conscious- 
ness and analyze it carefully. Interpretation unifies the 
facts of history because it discovers in them a common 
content, and this subjects them to the only process by 
which knowledge is unified. This is a universal process, 
since it is common to the organization of material in 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 47 

every realm of knowledge. It is also a process of highest 
educational value on account of the degree of strength 
called forth. No other subject appears at first glance 
less likely to admit of any sort of integration. On 
its external side — the one from which the student first 
sees it — history seems a wilderness of unrelated facts. 
But interpretation, by discovering common ideas, estab- 
lishes order among these facts and connections among 
the larger parts of the subject ; and if the process of 
interpretation is carried on till the student finds the com- 
mon content of all the leading facts of history, the result 
is the integration of the subject as a whole. The mind 
now sees, not isolated and diverse facts, but one great fact, 
— the growth of institutional life. In order to estimate 
the educational value of the historical whole we must 
examine into the nature of the different forms it may 
take. There are two of these : one in which the whole 
is a mere aggregation with its parts of the same nature, 
while in the other form the whole is a principle, or idea, 
and the parts are its phases. There is a vast difference in 
the pedagogical value of these two forms, and in the pro- 
cesses by which they are wrought out ; and it is of the 
utmost importance that the teacher be able to recognize 
which kind of an historical whole he is creating in the 
student's mind. 

The Mechanical Historical Whole. — One of the com- 
monest illustrations in history of this first form of whole 
is that of time-whole. This is not only common, but is very 
superficial. Ideas grow and events occur in time, it is true. 



48 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

but neither are controlled merely by the lapse of years. 
New ideas and new movements do not begin with the 
opening of the year nor cease with the closing of a cen- 
tury ; hence time-wholes and time-parts are more or less 
artificial — are aggregations of events united by a bond 
that is outside of, and apparently around, them. We may 
think of the expedition against Lexington and Concord as 
occurring within one day, thus surrounding the event in 
imagination by the limits of a day. The events under 
this mental form are an aggregation, exhibiting no living 
principle which gives them organic union. This event 
may be thrown into time-parts by perceiving that one 
portion of the events occurred before daylight, another in 
the forenoon, and still others in the afternoon. These 
smaller wholes are artificial, for they do not correspond 
to the real parts of the event; but even if they did so 
correspond it would only be a coincidence. The imagina- 
tion may, and often does, hold a vague picture of the 
events of American history as limited by the two points 
in time, — 1492 and 1896. This is also a mere aggrega- 
tion. It may be definitely separated by other dates into 
smaller wholes — each time-whole bearing a name which 
calls up a confused jumble of events that have only time 
limits. Such periods of history — if they are entitled to 
so dignified a term — are mere mechanical wholes. 

Another illustration of the aggregate whole, in contrast 
with the organic, is the space-whole. We picture the events 
of the American Eevolution as having certain place-limits, 
and in so doing we create, as it were, an aggregation — a 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 49 

mass-whole. By picturing some of these events as belong- 
ing in the North, some in the West, and others still in the 
South, we drop our revolutionary space-whole into smaller 
wholes. These are not, as the imagination pictures them, 
derived from any peculiar differences in the events them- 
selves, but are rather divisions based on differences in 
place, into which we mechanically force the events. 

It is necessary tha,t the mind should view the events 
of history under the forms of time-wholes and place-wholes, 
but such artificial aggregates can hardly be ends in knowl- 
edge. It would be dangerously superficial to let the rela- 
tively mature mind stop with such forms of thought or 
to give much conscious attention to their creation. Such 
work belongs to the stage of immaturity, but for the logical 
stage of thought this should be incidental and should result 
from the mind's struggle with events under the higher 
form of integration. 

The Organic Historical Whole. — The other form of 
integrated product is one in which parts are made into a 
whole by the presence of a common idea which perme- 
ates each part. Such a whole maj - be called an organic 
one — one in which each part exists for the whole and the 
whole for each part. There is a life-connection here, for 
the destruction of the whole results in the disintegration 
of the parts. This whole is not an aggregate but a prin- 
ciple, and its parts are not smaller aggregates, but phases 
of the general truth. Such a whole expresses itself out- 
wardly by an aggregation, and each phase of the general 
idea manifests itself in some part of the aggregation. 



50 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

To see the history of our country as an organic whole 
requires that the student shall find one idea — the growth 
of institutional . thought and feeling — manifesting itself 
in all the details of that history. This idea constitutes 
the whole of our history and also its phases — growth 
of local institutions, union, and a national spirit. These 
phases are usually denominated periods, and are really 
smaller wholes when considered in themselves. Periods 
in history are . such for the student by virtue of the 
process of integration which follows from interpretation 
having discovered the great dominant phase of growth 
which characterizes the period and which furnishes the 
content of leading events of the time. The periods so 
viewed are organic wholes. They must be such in order 
to give the highest form of knowledge and the greatest 
degree of discipline. 

Comparison the Basis of Integration. — Fuller meaning 
can be given to the educational value of integration in 
history if we turn from its form — the historical whole — 
to its process, comparison. Integration is a synthetic 
process. Constructive mental processes in history, as in 
all subjects, are based upon the discovery of resemblances 
in the facts interpreted. The process of interpretation 
which results in integration is carried on hj the special 
process of comparison, — the process by which the mind 
discovers resemblances. Comparison, then, is the mental 
instrument by which historical wholes are wrought out. 

In order to produce the best results, comparison should 
become a conscious instrument in the hands of the student. 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 51 

When he feels its value by actual conscious experience, 
he becomes self-directive. Nothing frees him sooner 
from the monotony and drudgery of the history text 
than a conscious search for likenesses. These are not 
often formally expressed in school histories, so that this 
work may be performed by him under the stimulus of 
a direction or question put by the teacher. Such work 
stimulates to real discovery ; the student feels that he 
is getting more than is expressed in the book he uses, 
and this, too, without the direct aid of the teacher. The 
consciousness of his own strength thus comes to him, 
and he begins to be a seeker after first-hand historical 
truth. When the student forms a taste for searching after 
resemblances in historical material, the teacher will have 
no trouble at all in leading him into the habit of enlarging 
his comparisons by searching more than one author. It 
must be kept in mind here that this extension of the proc- 
ess is not for the purpose of being able to state the par- 
ticular views of each author, but rather that the student 
may have a deeper and fuller knowledge of the facts under 
investigation. If the likenesses and differences between 
authors are constantly alluded to, the attention is put in 
the wrong place. This is not a distinction without a 
difference. Nothing is more common in teaching history 
than for very different results to come from different 
teachers, apparently doing the same thing in the same 
way. This arises from a very subtle difference — a 
difference in the point of conscious attention or em- 
phasis. 



52 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

Integration through Comparison Simplifies Historical 
Knowledge. — This does not mean simplification by a 
reduction in the number and complexity of its facts, but, 
as hinted several times above, by discovering unity in 
the midst of diversity. This is the process by which the 
student grows into the conviction that, comparatively, 
only a few great ideas have battled for mastery on the 
fields of history ; it convinces him that new and strange 
events may be only the new embodiment of old ideas ; 
new and strange as to form, but old as to content. 

Division and its Uses. — It is a law of knowledge that 
whatever features enter into subjective truth must have 
their correspondence with objective truth. In no other 
place is this principle more often violated than in making 
divisions in history. Perhaps the reason is found in the 
fact that such divisions are made instead of discovered. 

In our analysis of the nature of history it was seen that 
in obedience to the law of continuity there are no gaps or 
breaks in the institutional life of a people, but that con- 
tinuous and connected growth is its characteristic feature. 
It was discovered that the phenomena of history are sub- 
ject to another principle of development, — differentiation. 
It is the movement of institutional life under this law that 
enables the student to discover progressive changes in the 
line of growth and thus mark transitions from one phase of 
thought and feeling to another. The operation of this law 
enables him to discover in the midst of some dominating 
movement different tendencies which may, under favoring 
conditions, become in turn the feature of some other period. 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTOKY. 53 

When, by interpretation, it is noted that certain periods 
of time are marked by peculiar phases of life, the basis 
for a division into parts is found. If this is to be done 
consciously for purposes of organization, three or four 
suggestions must be followed : (1) as already intimated, 
the parts are to be discovered, not made, — must be found 
in, rather than fitted on, the subject ; (2) that if coordinate 
and logical parts are to be found, there must be but one 
basis of division for any set of parts and that basis must 
be the phase of growth that integrates the facts of the 
period, or, if possible, some phase of this integrating idea ; 
(3) the basis of division ought to be a fundamental one, 
that is, some phase of institutional growth rather than 
portions of time, parts of country, or series of events. 

It is quite the custom to divide history into parts on the 
basis of differences in time, thus marking centuries, half- 
centuries, and decades in the subject. But these are not 
so much divisions in the thing studied as divisions in the 
calendar. It is evident to the student of life that the end 
of one century and the beginning of another no more mark 
the end of one movement and the beginning of another 
than any year within the hundred does. Life moves right 
on over decades and centuries — does not stop to take a 
holiday the first day of each new year as is implied in 
dividing and classifying events by years. Such divisions 
may be convenient when speaking of history in a general 
way, but they certainly do not in themselves reveal or 
designate anything fundamental in the life studied. But 
if the student needs a framework to lean upon, as little 



54 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

harm will come from a chronological division as from any- 
other artificial means. 

The same objection holds against geographical divisions. 
These may seem to be convenient, but are generally super- 
ficial, misleading, and give no insight into the nature of 
the thing studied. The familiar division of our history 
into discoveries, settlements, intercolonial wars, war of 
the revolution, confederation, administrations, and so on, 
gives parts that are not entirely artificial, but are based 
on differences in events ; they are somewhat superficial, 
for they deal with the externals of history rather than with 
history itself. The basis of separation is not fundamental 
enough to be helpful in the process of organization. If 
we drop below the surface-play of events to the growth 
of institutional ideas — the principle on which the sub- 
ject as a whole is integrated — and ask what are the great 
differentiating features of American institutional life, it 
will be found that between 1607 and 1860 there are three 
great forms of development : (1) the growth of European 
ideas into local institutions ; (2) the growth of local insti- 
tutions into the form of a nation ; (3) the development of 
the spirit of nationality. This division, to be true, must 
meet all the requirements of organization. 

The process of division is not an end in itself, but a 
means to more concrete interpretation and more minute 
integration. History is separated into its parts, not only 
because there is a basis for separation in the thing itself, 
but, pedagogically, because it enables the mind to attack 
the problem of historical organization in detail. This idea 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 55 

of division as a means to more concrete study will be amply 
illustrated in the application of the principle of organiza- 
tion to the various periods and sub-periods. 

The process of division is an analytic one, so far as the 
subject of history is concerned. In this respect division 
is the opposite of integration in its product and in its proc- 
ess. Hence the discovery of differences in the act of 
interpretation trains the mind to make careful discrimina- 
tions. To get the exact phase of public sentiment demands 
a most discriminating judgment. Interpretation can be 
made to do this if the teacher knows the content of the 
events interpreted and presses the student for it. 

It is difficult to see how this analytic study can be pushed 
too far if there goes at each new step the new act of syn- 
thesis — the making of a new integration. But when the 
end is forgotten, and especially when the process is applied 
to the mere form of historical material, events and other 
accidental features, then there is danger ahead. 

Most of the so-called " methods " of teaching history, 
such as the topical, the outline, the diagram, the exponen- 
tial, and the brace method, are based merely on the rela- 
tions of whole and part. A student may outline or diagram 
a lesson in history as presented by some author, and 
know almost nothing about it. The most imposing out- 
lines or diagrams of history are those made independent 
of any real basis of division, while to be of any teaching 
value, they must adhere to some fundamental idea as a 
basis, which usually renders them insignificant in appear- 
ance. It should not be forgotten by the- diagram-maker 



56 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

that the student must understand the relations in history 
before he can make a logical diagram, and that after these 
relations are once mastered, he has comparatively little 
use for such artificial representations. Again, the outline 
and diagram represent historical material as statical, while 
in truth, it is predominantly dynamical. On still another 
count these artificial systems are found wanting ; they 
represent on the blackboard or in the notebook a thing 
that has no corresponding existence in fact ; often the 
pupil carries away only a picture of the subject in two 
dimensions — a picture utterly unlike, in form and feature, 
the facts studied ; and the only redeeming feature about 
it is that the pupil will lose his false conception as soon 
as the artificial framework passes away. Finally, these 
systems at best are based upon but two out of the many 
categorical relations. Diagrams are a means, but not a 
means of very high order. 

Interpretation Develops the Historical Judgment In 

the discussion upon the nature of history, it was discovered 
that the acts of individuals or of nations are adapted to 
express the thought and feeling that give rise to them. 
The imagination sets men and nations before the judgment 
in the process of acting. From what they are seen to do 
and from the way in which it is done, the judgment reaches 
its conclusions as to the thoughts and feelings, ideas and 
emotions that give rise to the events and, therefore, give 
meaning to them. This act of judgment is the interpreta- 
tive act proper, and the faculty that puts it forth may be 
designated as the historical judgment. History is entitled 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 57 

to give name to this phase of the judgment's activity from 
the fact that history almost, if not entirely, alone stimulates 
and develops it. It would seem that it is reserved for his- 
tory to confer upon the mind the peculiar and very important 
faculty of reading thought and feeling through deeds. 

The training which gives the power to reach the plans 
and purposes of men through their acts has not only high 
pedagogical value, but also has very great practical value. 
Progress in historical study is largely dependent upon the 
growing skill with which the student can infer accurately 
and rapidly the content of events as they pass in quick 
review before the imagination. Mere accumulation of 
facts in memory is not meant here, but instead, that power 
which gets from events or facts described in historical 
narrative, their true significance. The power to do this 
has direct and important bearing on the affairs of every- 
day life. What else are men doing who meet each other in 
the various walks of life ? Men contend or men cooperate 
in the conduct of all the institutions of human society. 
But to do either well — intelligently and successfully — they 
must penetrate to ideas, motives, and plans through the 
deeds of one another. How poorly we judge of the con- 
duct of men and of society! Surely there is need that 
teachers of history shall recognize and utilize the capacity 
in their own subject, to confer upon the student this pecu- 
liar guiding power. 

The exercise of the historical judgment in the process 
of interpretation fosters the formation of a most valuable 
habit of mind, — the habit of questioning appearances. This 



58 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

is not only an important historical habit, but it is of great 
thinking value to the non-historical student, for its tend- 
ency is to force the mind to look through appearances to 
reality — to look through phenomena to the laws of phe- 
nomena. Every act of historical interpretation gives the 
mind this tendency. 

Emotional Results of Interpretation. — The preceding 
discussion of the educational value of interpretation has con- 
sidered only intellectual processes and products. But some 
of the most valuable results of historical study pertain to the 
stimulus of emotions and the development of character. In 
the first place, the process of interpretation in history gives 
the rational basis for interest in the subject. It brings 
the mind of the student into direct contact with mind as 
it manifests itself in history; this is life in touch with life. 
The life of the student responds to the touch of the life 
of other men in other times. This is inevitable, for, as he 
touches the whole round of human experience as it is 
reflected in events, he will find much that is closely akin 
to his own. It seems strange, therefore, that any one 
should dislike history. About the only way to prevent a 
love of history from arising in the normal mind is to 
refuse it the opportunity of free and sympathetic contact 
with life — refuse to allow it to enter into the minds and 
hearts that lived and struggled as it lives and struggles. 
This is accomplished by turning the student out to pasture 
on dead events — disconnected and empty. This is a peda- 
gogical consideration of some importance when it is remem- 
bered that many pupils, and students even, not only do not 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 59 

like history but have a positive dislike for it. There are 
many artificial means used to create an interest in history, 
but the results are usually delusive because their resem- 
blance to the real thing makes their detection very difficult. 
The pupil, and even the student, may be apparently inter- 
ested in history because of an admiration for the teacher, 
or a desire to make a high record, or to stand well in the 
estimation of the class, or to be an honor student, or 
because of some taking device that the teacher, for the 
time being, employs to revive the lagging interest. None 
of these reach the test of true interest ; each represents a 
form of interest that deludes teachers, pupils, and students. 
Interest in the thing for its own sake is the only genuine 
interest. Proper interpretation will give this. 

In the second place, the intimate contact with the life 
of the past gained through a proper interpretation of events 
has a still deeper significance in its relation to the emo- 
tions ; it is the basis of an intelligent patriotism. In this 
sort of work the student lives over again the life he studies. 
He sympathizes with and admires men, parties, and nations 
in their struggles for a just cause. His heart warms to a 
noble idea or sentiment as he traces its conflict with preju- 
dice and custom. On the other hand, he comes to despise 
the unjust cause and the efforts of men who live under the 
impulse of unworthy ideals and employ ignoble means. 
He is impressed with the idea that after a time the right 
comes to prevail, and that men and nations who turn their 
backs upon a good cause and deliberately choose the baser 
course will, in the end, pay dearly for their choice. 



60 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

Such a study will enable one to put a juster estimate on 
the rights and privileges that have been won for him. He 
thus comes to feel a deep current of sympathy with that 
for which his own nation stands. He loves it for what it 
has been, what it is, and for what it will become. This is 
an intelligent patriotism — the only safe kind. Historical 
interpretation is the only source of this form of devotion 
to country. It may be, that, since this ideal of historical 
study is only partly realized, it is necessary to have a flag 
over each schoolhouse in the land. Perhaps, even if this 
ideal were realized, it would still be desirable to have the 
flag always in sight, but surely the patriotism that comes 
from having the flag in the mind and heart of each American 
citizen is the safer sort. 

Ethical Value of Interpretation. — When the student 
passes from the study of causes to the study of purposes 
and motives, his whole attitude of mind changes. From 
the very nature of the case, he is challenged to pass judg- 
ment on the actors in the drama of passing events. He 
judges of their ability and sagacity in forming designs 
and in selecting means for their realization. In the pur- 
chase of Louisiana the student will say that Jefferson 
shows himself to be a farseeing and disinterested states- 
man, but that in his plan of coast defence he exhibits 
great ignorance of methods of war. In a similar way 
he will judge the statesmanship, on its intellectual side, 
of all the great and small men who have figured in our 
history. But on another side, and one having very inti- 
mate connection, as we have seen, with the question of 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 61 

right interpretation in history, the student is still more 
persistent in his determination to arraign men and meas- 
ures before the bar of judgment ; I mean the moral quali- 
ties of the motives which move men to action. In this 
field he would praise Washington and La Fayette for 
disinterested devotion to the cause of liberty, while he 
would have condemnation for the selfishness of Gates 
and Lee. He would extol John Quincy Adams for 
fidelity to principle both as president and as congress- 
man. His admiration for Webster will turn to regret 
when he listens to the " Seventh of March " speech. 
Just as in the conduct of individuals, he will com- 
mend or condemn political parties for the motives that 
sway them. 

This process may go on in the student more or less 
unconsciously. At least it may go on without the knowl- 
edge of the teacher, unless, by the character of the inter- 
pretation he stimulates the student to give frequent ex- 
pression to his conclusions in this field. The fact that 
the student will reach such conclusions is a sufficient 
reason why the teacher should guide him in the process, — 
guide, but not dominate, his inferences. ISTo other phase 
of historical interpretation opens up so widely the oppor- 
tunity for mistakes in judgment, even where the student 
is free from prejudice. He needs here, if ever, the guiding 
hand of one who has sought truth for its own sake — and 
found it. This guidance finds its best work, not in giving 
the student bald conclusions which he must accept because 
the teacher is supposed to be better authority than he is, 



62 GENEllAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

but in leading him to gather sufficient data to make his 
own inferences reasonably true. 

The reaction of this phase of study on the student is 
very profound but also very subtle. It is sometimes good 
and sometimes bad. The study of generous, broad-minded, 
unselfish conduct is ennobling in a high degree, but the stu- 
dent must come in contact with conduct of another sort. 
How rudely is he sometimes shocked when a great character 
whom he very much admires, as Webster, Clay, or Calhoun, 
goes astray and devotes the energy of his mighty genius 
to an unworthy cause. The student in this formative 
period of mind sets his ideal high, and to find in men he 
admires any serious departure from this tends to shake 
his confidence in humanity. This is a result that certainly 
ought not to come about, and it need not. It ought not to 
come about because it is usually based on insufficient his- 
torical data, and is, therefore, not true to history. Again, 
it ought not to come about for the reason of its disastrous 
influence upon the ethical life of the student — it may 
make him cynical and pessimistic. There is no necessity 
for a result so untrue to history and so harmful to the stu- 
dent. The teacher may direct the interpretation of events 
in the light of purposes and motives so that the whole 
truth of history may be revealed and its ethical message 
to the student may not be perverted. 

Three things can the teacher do to prevent false inter- 
pretation : 1. He can show the student that unfair judg- 
ments may be reached by projecting his own standard 
and that of the present into the past and by trying men 



PROCESSES IN OEGANIZLNG HISTORY. 63 

and motives by them. The student has been taught the 
highest respect for the Constitution, and when he reads 
the story of Patrick Henry's vehement opposition to its 
ratification, the reputation, and perhaps the character, of 
that patriot falls in his estimation. He finds it difficult 
to reconcile Washington's love of liberty and his sacrifices 
for it, with his owning slaves ; and even more so in the case 
of Henry Clay. But it is evident that in each instance the 
student is trying these men in the light of his own times. 
The teacher's duty is to make him truer to history, and then 
he will be truer to these men and truer to himself. 2. A 
second means may be used to preserve the ethical equilib- 
rium of the student, — a judicious emphasis upon the lives 
of men who have been moral heroes, and there are plenty 
of such lives. The student, like the public in which he 
lives, takes it for granted that great men do good deeds, 
and so he is not particularly struck with the everyday life 
of good men as we have their acts in history. For the 
truth of history, then, the student should have his atten- 
tion consciously directed to the influence of good men on 
the growth of our institutions. This will not be untrue to 
history, for the influence of the Arnolds, the Burrs, and 
others who have tried to harm the nation for personal ends, 
has been, comparatively speaking, very slight indeed. 3. 
We noticed in another paragraph that there is a tide in 
the affairs of men that seems not always to be of their 
own planning. It rides over their narrow, sordid, selfish 
purposes and makes for ends and results far beyond 
human comprehension. Or it may be a mighty wave of 



64 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

chastening public sentiment that rises and overturns the 
schemes of men, thus reaching some great end in the way 
of which men and parties stood. The selfishness and greed 
of men and parties have thus been punished by what seemed 
an avenging public opinion. The American Revolution, 
the annihilation of the Whig party, and the defeat of the 
Democrats between 1854 and 1860, and the destruction 
of slavery by the proclamation of the son of a poor white 
in order to suppress a slaveholder's rebellion, are instances 
of great movements to secure great ends. These, and 
others like them, can give the student confidence in the 
ultimate triumph of right over wrong. They will also give 
him confidence in the ability of the American people to 
overthrow organized selfishness in whatever form it may 
appear. 

THE PROCESS OF COORDINATION. 

Nature of the Process. 

The Basis of Coordination. — It has been said that the 
proper solution of the problem of the organization of 
knowledge in general, and of historical knowledge in 
particular, depends on discovering and utilizing the rela- 
tions which exist between the particular facts and the 
fundamental principle of a subject. 

Investigation will show that the facts of a subject em- 
body its fundamental principle in various ways and in 
varying degrees. Translated into the language of history, 
this means that different events embody the growth of 
institutional ideas in different degrees. In carrying on 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 65 

the process of historical interpretation, the process by 
which the mind searches for the growth of ideas in events, 
the student is frequently struck by the richness with 
which some events, and the barrenness with which others, 
reveal the thoughts and feelings of the people. 

Theoretical and Practical Need. — In order to organize 
historical knowledge then, something more is necessary 
than mere interpretation, however valuable that is or how- 
ever perfectly it may be done. It is necessary, therefore, 
for the student to pass judgment upon the relative value 
of the facts or events that have been interpreted. The 
practical need of this is very apparent in a field like his- 
tory, where the facts are almost limitless in number, and 
where they range through all degrees of complexity. The 
life of one man like that of Franklin has almost innu- 
merable incidents attending its course. The history of a 
single state numbers its facts almost without limit. What, 
then, must be true of the amount of matter that may be 
handled in dealing with the life of a great nation ? There 
must be selection and emphasis here, or history must be 
given over as a disorganized and lawless subject. 

There are few teachers who have not felt the pressing 
need of some means of selecting from the vast amount of 
matter to be found in text-books and libraries that particu- 
lar portion having the highest historical significance. The 
small amount of time devoted to history, compared with 
the vast extent of the field, makes the question of selection 
and emphasis a really " practical" question. It comes every 
day alike to the teacher in the grades and the professor 



66 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

in the university. For the sake of truth and for the sake 
of the learner, each must make an attempt to solve the 
problem. 

The ordinary way is to trust the text-books — at least, 
in the public schools ; and in colleges, adaptability as 
material for an interesting lecture is too often the basis 
of selection. If the teacher will compare different text- 
books on history as to the amount of space given to events, 
it will be apparent why most of them cannot be trusted to 
settle the question of the relative value of the facts treated. 
Not many years ago a very popular text-book on United 
States history was issued that gave one-half of its pages 
to our history before the Revolution. If the teacher trusts 
this text-book, her pupils will spend as much time on our 
history before 1760 as after it. The same text gives many 
pages to John Smith's exploits, and a very few lines to 
the establishment of representative government in Virginia 
by Governor Yeardly, — an event full of destiny. King 
Philip's war in New England and the Body of Liber- 
ties established by Massachusetts in 1641 are treated 
after a similar fashion ; about two hundred lines are given 
to the former and less than a dozen lines to the latter. A 
number of other text-books, while giving attention to King 
Philip's war, do not even mention the Body of Liberties, 
nor the early efforts of the Connecticut settlers at consti- 
tution-making. Illustrations may be multiplied to show 
that authors of school histories, as a rule, have no well- 
defined principle of selection or emphasis, and that the 
teacher who is guided by them alone will often go astray. 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 67 

Of course, we ought not to infer that an author in all cases 
expects teachers to value his material by the amount of 
space given it. In many cases, from the nature of the 
facts, the amount of space given to their narration must 
be out of proportion to their significance. But even if the 
teacher could trust the author to select and distribute his 
material according to its value, he would still need, in order 
to be free, a standard by which he could test the value of 
the material for himself. There is no growth for the 
teacher except through freedom conferred by working 
under the guidance of principles. 

The Principle Stated. — All these considerations, theo- 
retical and practical, demand that the principle of selection 
and emphasis in history be a fundamental one, — one to 
which the student and teacher may appeal with some de- 
gree of certainty. This standard must not be an accidental 
one ; it must not be set up by the whim of any person and 
be changed with a change of teachers, but must be one 
derived from the very essence of history itself — from the 
relations that exist between its facts and its organizing 
principle. Since the events of history express the growth 
of institutional life in different degrees, it must follow 
that they will have historical value in proportion to 
their content. We may safely set up the growth of insti- 
tutional life as the standard for making this test of histor- 
ical value. To state the principle somewhat formally, it 
may be said that that event, series, or period has the high- 
est historical value which reveals most fully the people's 
institutional thought and feeling. Such a fact takes high- 



68 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

est rank. On the other hand, that event, series, or period 
which yields the least historical significance will take 
lowest rank in the subject. i 

Suggestions as to Application. — There are two phases 
of this question of historical selection. The teacher, like 
the author, must first choose between the facts to be 
omitted and those to be taken. In the second place, 
a careful measure of the relative value of those selected 
must be made. The utility of our standard of selection 
is apparent from the fact that we must appeal to it in 
making our choice in each case. Why should any fact 
in American history be omitted and another fact selected? 
The only logical answer is that the fact rejected does not 
sufficiently reveal to the student the growth of institu- 
tional life. Why should De Soto's expedition form a 
part of a course in American history, while a hundred 
other Spanish explorers and their work go unnamed ? 
The only reason is that the work of De Soto had a more 
intimate connection with our institutions than had those 
omitted. If one had to choose between the work of 
George Rogers Clark and that of Daniel Boone, in the 
Revolution, on what basis should the choice be made ? 
Whose work contributed most to the development of the 
American institutions, would be the question to put. The 
answer to this question is the answer to the other question. 
Problems like these come to the teacher when he attempts 
to make his own working outline, or when, for the lack of 
time, he must omit portions of the history text or spend 
little time upon them. The rational answer in each case 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 69 

is to be found in the relation of the fact to the funda- 
mental or organizing principle. 

It is this phase of the question which presses con- 
stantly upon the teacher and is the one that has most to 
do with the distribution of the pupil's time and energy. 
This question has been variously designated : some call it 
" historical emphasis," others, " historical perspective." 
Whatever the name, the principle is the same, and in its 
application has to do with deciding between the relative 
value of periods or series of events, between the members 
of the series, and between features of each event. 

In dealing with the relative value of these forms of his- 
torical facts, the teacher can save time for the student by 
deciding in a general way the relative amount of study 
that is to be given to the various periods of history. 
After this is disposed of, the next question of relative 
values arises from within the periods. Each period, it 
will be learned, is marked by a dominant movement in 
institutional growth. This dominant movement furnishes 
the leading content for interpretation, and also the stand- 
ard for the relative value of the various series of events 
that are found within the period. The next problem re- 
lates to the relative value of the various series constituting 
the period ; these express in different degrees the funda- 
mental idea of the period, hence have different historical 
values and are, therefore, entitled to attention and emphasis 
in like proportion. But the problem of relative values has, 
at least, one more important phase : Which is the greatest 
and which is the least event in the series? A series is 



70 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

suck by virtue of a dominant idea, which idea is either 
some phase of the dominant idea of the period or is vitally 
connected with it. How the events of the series embody 
this sub-idea is the test of their respective values. 

It is desirable, if not necessary, here to call atten- 
tion to the value of certain external features of events. 
Two in particular, time and place, or chronology and 
geography, ought to be considered. As ordinarily viewed 
these two features or accompaniments of events pertain 
rather to the external side than to the content of events. 
When so viewed they can have little or no historical value. 
This ought to suggest, to teachers of dates and dots on 
maps, that there is possibly something wrong in the ven- 
erable custom of committing to memory long lists of dates 
and places of events. 1 Let us search for a rational basis 
for judging the place of chronology and geography in 
history. 

Growth in institutional ideas is, as we have seen, along 
lines parallel in time. Events are located along these lines 
of growth at intervals of time, this location serving as a 
means of marking off the stages in the development of 
ideas. It facilitates interpretation to know the place in 

1 It is strange how teachers who do this deceive themselves into 
believing in its value. The trick is simple. After the lists are com- 
mitted and some time has elapsed, the teacher begins — it may be on 
review — to call for the time and place of events that belong to the 
lists. Those who have supple verbal memories respond easily and cor- 
rectly ; those who have learned no list, cannot give the exact date and 
place, and so ignominiously fail. Hence the great value of committing 
dates and dots ! 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 71 

time an event occupies along this line. Its location, 
however, includes more than knowing its mere date ; for 
we may know the date of an event as an abstract and 
empty thing, out of all relation to other events and there- 
fore miss all suggestion as to its content. The fixing of 
an event in time must be by associating with it events 
and phases of thought that precede, succeed, and are 
simultaneous in time. It often occurs that the associa- 
tion of historical facts in the order of time suggests that 
they may be more fundamentally related as cause and 
effect, or that there may be a similarity of significance. 
Whenever time associations are made among such facts 
it must be remembered that it is never for the sake of 
the date. The date cannot be an end in itself in the 
process of interpretation ; it must always remain a ser- 
vant. This fact rightly understood will prevent the per- 
nicious practice of committing long lists of dates with 
only the name of the event attached. The same amount 
of energy given to a study of the thoughts and feelings 
of the people, as revealed in the events belonging to the 
list of dates, would give a fair knowledge of their con- 
tent ; and at the same time the dates of the events would 
be sufficiently fixed. This would be a study of history ; 
date-learning is not. 

Institutions must grow somewhere, and the place in which 
a people's life develops exerts a powerful influence over 
it. Not only do climatic influences modify man's physical 
activity but his spiritual as well ; in one region physical 
conditions favor reflection while in another they stimulate 



72 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

sensuous enjoyments. The physical differences between 
the North and the South partly caused their wide contrasts 
in institutional life, and through the latter the Civil War. 
Differences in occupations are largely based on variations 
in physical conditions ; conflicting interests may thus 
arise that show their influence on legislation. The dis- 
tribution of relief forms and waterways may determine 
the direction of trade and the movement of armies. The 
Hudson River and Lake Cham plain region determined the 
direction and plan of more than one campaign in both the 
Inter-colonial and the Revolutionary wars. The same 
thing is true in a greater degree, of the rivers Mississippi, 
Ohio, Potomac, and James, in our Civil War. It is clear 
from these facts that the relation of place, like that of time, 
is a key to knowledge under higher relations. But if the 
place of an event, including its surroundings, cannot be 
seen as an active agent transforming ideas and producing 
events — cannot aid therefore in the process of interpre- 
tation^ — then its historical value is very small indeed. 
The bald location on the map of all the places named in 
the text is almost useless work. The danger is that the 
pupil carries away in memory a certain number of dots 
located on certain parts of his map ; in other words, he 
locates portions of the map instead of events in their real 
geographical relations. This gives the imagination no 
aid in picturing the physical surroundings of things, and 
has very little historical value. The map is a means in 
history, whether it is furnished by the book or made by 
the pupil. The historical map may be made by the stu- 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HISTORY. 73 

dent, if in the making lie gains something of historical 
valne. It should be accurate, rather than beautiful ; the 
end is an historical idea and not an aesthetic emotion. 

There must be a great economy in time and energy when 
the teacher has decided in advance which is the most im- 
portant period, which is the most important series of events 
in the period, and which is the most important event in 
the series. Not only is there great economy in time and 
energy, but what an immeasurable difference between the 
student's conception of the subject itself under this plan, 
and his hazy and bewildered state of mind under the old 
plan of " going it blind " ! The result of testing periods, 
parts of periods, and events in this way will lead to the 
discovery of a number of things : 

1. That the value of a period or other series of events 
is not determined by the length of time covered. 

2. That some events and series are of such a character 
and the manner of treatment by certain authors is such 
that a single reading is all they merit ; they may be put 
in to fill out the picture or to make the connection between 
more important events. 

3. That a single fact may be so close to the people's life 
that a series of lessons may be spent on it. 

4. That this distribution of time and effort will break up 
the uniform and featureless whole given by the simple proc- 
ess of interpretation, and will create a body of knowledge 
full of variety, each fact occupying the rank determined by 
its own value. 



74 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

Educational Value of Coordination. 

We now come to the pedagogical significance of the pro- 
cess of judging relative values. It has already been stated 
that there are at least two phases to this question ; one of 
knowledge and the other of discipline. There is possibly 
another phase by inference from these two, namely, what 
must be done by the teacher in the light of the answer to 
the other two. This has been partly discussed above. 

Effect as to Knowledge. — It has already been made clear 
that, foi complete organization, the material given in inter- 
pretation must then be coordinated and subordinated, — 
that is, arranged in a system on the basis of its historical 
significance. This result removes the great body of histori- 
cal facts another step from chaos, the first being unity and 
diversity through interpretation ; now, they are made to 
assume rank in the subject in light of the place they hold 
in the life of a people. In most subjects the parts and 
particular facts have a place and rank that is fairly well 
recognized. Not so in history. While it may never be 
possible to rank the facts of history as perfectly as those of 
many other subjects, yet the loose and reckless manner in 
which they are handled by teachers shows that a reasonable 
attempt ought to be made in this direction. Perhaps not 
much effort in ranking the facts of history has been made 
because of the nature of the facts ; but mainly, however, 
it is because no coordinating and subordinating principle 
has been generally accepted. Why has no principle been 
generally accepted ? Chiefly, I think, because students 



PROCESSES IN ORGANIZING HfSTORY. 75 

have not clearly differentiated between the form and the 
content of history. 

There is another way in which this process affects the 
student's knowledge, that is, by adding to it. When the 
conclusion is reached that the battle of Lexington is a more 
important event than the storming of Stony Point — one of 
the most brilliant military events of the Eevolutionary 
War — the student has added to his stock a fact more 
valuable than if he had added a dozen mere incidents con- 
nected with these events. Many pupils in the public 
schools and students in higher institutions can state inter- 
esting things connected with the purchase of Louisiana and 
Florida ; but, knowing little about their relative impor- 
tance, cannot explain which produced the greater effect 
upon the dominant movement of that period. Would it 
not really be adding to their knowledge of history to dis- 
cover which produced the greater result upon the life and 
the thought of the time ? 

Confers Power to properly Judge Contemporaneous 
Events. — On the side of discipline a far greater result is 
produced by training in the ranking of men and events. We 
have seen how interpretation gives ability and skill in get- 
ting into the content of contemporaneous events. ISTow, 
experience in determining the relative rank of past events 
ought to confer the power and skill to estimate similar 
present facts at their true value. It is not an easy thing 
to estimate present movements at their true value, and few 
there are who do not need more of this sort of ability, — 
few who do not make grave mistakes for lack of power to 



76 GENERAL NATURE OF HISTORY. 

balance men and their conduct, parties and their policies, 
institutions and their ends and tendencies. People are 
influenced by new movements because they are new; 
some become absorbed in a small, quiet movement with a 
great principle behind it, while others are caught by great 
noisy commotions with little or nothing of principle. 
Others allow a single idea to fill their attention and absorb 
their energy to the exclusion of all other ideas, until they 
come to see it out of its true proportion. All other ideas 
and movements come to such men through the wrong end 
of the telescope. It would seem, therefore, that the power 
cultivated by the process of coordinating and subordinating 
the facts of history — balancing events, men, and motives 
— is of great practical value in the contest of life. 



ORGANIZATION OF 

THE PERIODS OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

— ~»-8-8g-r<~ — 
PERIOD OF THE GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 



The Relation of Discoveries and Explorations 
to this Period. 

Not a Coordinate Phase of Institutional Life. — The 

separation of our history into the great phases given above 
does not include as one of its parts the discoveries and 
explorations that opened up America to Europe. A divi- 
sion made by searching for differences in the growth of 
institutional ideas cannot recognize these events as con- 
stituting one of its organic parts. They do not mark a 
movement in the thought of our people, for the ideas that 
called these events into being were European and hence 
belong primarily to the domain of general history, or to 
the history of their respective nations. If the separation 
into parts be made to rest, as is customary, on differences 
in events, then discoveries and explorations would consti- 
tute one of the main periods in American history. It does 
not follow, however, that, with the fundamental basis devel- 
oped in the preceding discussions, there is no place for these 
events in our history. On the contrary, their rank in the 
subject is determined by the same method that fixes the 



78 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

rank of any other series of events. If they touch the devel- 
opment of American institutions in any appreciable way, 
then they have some rank, but what particular rank must 
be determined by the amount and kind of this connection. 

Their True Connection and Rank. — In general it may 
be said that the discoveries and explorations of the dif- 
ferent European nations tended to fix the place where 
each planted its institutions in America. The place where 
ideas and institutions grow influences their development. 
Climate touches human life in many ways, determining 
animal and plant life, affecting the production of food, 
clothing, and shelter, and influencing population and social 
customs. The presence or absence of a fertile soil, rich 
mineral deposits, and navigable lakes and rivers gives bent 
to industrial life, and through this reaches into the domain 
of politics. For these reasons the student must take some 
account of the place where a new France, a new Spain, and 
a new England are to grow and do battle for existence. 

For another reason the place of discoveries and explora- 
tions must be noted : the claims to ownership of soil were 
based upon these events, and out of overlapping claims 
came much of colonial history that shaped the course of 
future events. Our organizing principle makes us say, 
then, that the process of interpretation for a voyage of dis- 
covery and exploration consists in showing how it tended 
to fix a place for the growth of a group of institutions. 
This same principle makes it clear that the expedition 
having most to do in fixing or extending this region is the 
most important one in the series belonging to a given 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 79 

nation. To put it in another way, it may be said that the 
teacher, in order to direct his pupils intelligently, must 
know two things about each event in such series : (1) what 
the event contributed to the claims of the nation sending 
out the expedition ; (2) how the work of this expedition 
compares with that accomplished by others. 

In settling these points, no doubt questions like the fol- 
lowing will arise in the teacher's mind : Shall the pupil be 
permitted to learn only the bare facts about the voyage of 
Ponce de Leon ? Our organizing principle does not exclude 
any knowledge of this voyage that enables one to under- 
stand how it tended to confirm or extend Spanish claims. 
But whether the Fountain of Youth ought to be studied in 
connection with this voyage is determined by its bearing 
on the confirmation or extension of Spanish claims. 1 

What ought to be done with the great expedition of De 
Soto ? The organizing idea of history forces each teacher 
to ask this question : Did De Soto's expedition touch 
directly or indirectly the growth of our institutions ? The 
answer is that it did so, very remotely, by confirming and 
extending Spanish claims to territory in North America. 
Very well, then, our principle directs us to study this 
expedition until the extent of De Soto's contribution is 
determined. But what about De Soto's wife left as Gov- 
ernor of Cuba, the number of vessels in his fleet, the number 

1 The pupil's interest in this beautiful legend may be an argument 
for its study at some time, but this'interest offers no argument for its 
finding a place in the study of Spanish claims : it must stand or fall 
by the test applied to all events. 



80 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

of mail-clad knights, of priests, of horses and hogs on board, 
the number of Indian fights and the results of each ? Must 
the student learn and recite all these ? They are all down 
in some of the books and serve to keep the class interested. 
It all depends on the relation of these incidents to Spanish 
claims to territory in North America. If they bear on the 
solution of this problem ; if they aid the pupil to see more 
clearly what this expedition did for Spain, then they must 
be noticed — it may be, only noticed. The same principle 
will apply to the voyages of other nations that planted 
institutions in North America. 

From the nature of the case, English explorations have 
a closer connection with our history than those of other 
nations. Our institutions have grown out of English ideas, 
in the main, and in the place which English voyages pre- 
pared for them. Eor this reason, though comparatively 
fewer in number, they should be studied with more care 
than the voyages of other nations. There seems to be an 
exception in the case of the first voyage of Columbus. His 
first voyage, historically speaking, was a world-voyage 
having much significance for other nations as well as 
for Spain. Hence, it must occupy high rank in this pre- 
liminary part of our history. 

Erom the fact that the discoveries and explorations, 
taken as a whole, have, comparatively, only a small influ- 
ence on the growth of our institutions, they cannot be 
erected into a coordinate part of the history of the United 
States ; but because of their immediate relation to the 
localization and planting of European ideas in America, 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 81 



tliey of right constitute an introduction to the period that 
deals with the transformation of European ideas into 
colonial institutions. 

Non- American History. — Attention has been called to 
the fact that not all the voyages to America belong in the 
category of American history. In fact, much time may 
be easily wasted in a study of events that are really no 
part of American history unless one takes a very mechan- 
ical view of history, and holds that all events occurring 
in America form a part of its history. This would make 
the history of the North American Indians a part of Amer- 
ican history, but certainly no one will say that in any truly 
historical sense did Indian institutions flow into or become 
a part of American institutions. And yet it is no uncom- 
mon thing for a teacher to be found earnestly at work 
teaching the history of the North American Indian with- 
out any conception of the proper limit of such study. The 
same is true of Mound-builders and the theories of their 
origin and modes of life. Nor do the ordinary texts give 
much guidance. None will deny the deep interest that 
attaches to these subjects, but the charm of interest cannot 
be the basis for passing judgment upon their position as 
facts in American history. There is but one test, the rela- 
tion which they sustain to the growth of American institu- 
tions. The extent to which they influenced our history is 
the true measure of their value. When any fact is taught 
about explorations, Indians, or Mound-builders, which has 
no connection with our institutional life, such a fact is in 
the field of non- American history. 



82 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

The Period as a Whole. 

What Constitutes a Period. ^— It has just been shown 
that a series of events, discoveries, and explorations does 
not constitute a period. What does constitute one may be 
inferred partly from preceding discussions, but something 
more definite is now needed. The period or epoch is the 
largest and most complex historical division. Fundamen- 
tally, it is one of the coordinate phases of institutional 
growth which unite to make up the totality of a people's 
life. A period exists by virtue of the fact that a great 
movement in the life of the people dominates events for a 
given time. This epochal movement sets off its own time 
and events from those which precede and those which 
succeed it ; it is, therefore, a differentiating idea. Were 
it not so, periods would be, in relation to each other, mere 
artificial inventions depending upon, and varying with, the 
whim of the writer or teacher. Not only does the domi- 
nant movement do this, but it also forms the common 
content of the facts of its own period, and thus performs 
the function of integration. Fundamentally, an event 
without this common content does not belong to the period, 
even if it occurs within the usual chronological limits of 
that period. On account of the loose thinking usually 
done in history, such a statement may seem entirely 
erroneous. It is only in history that groups and classes 
of entirely dissimilar facts are permitted. 

Nature of this Period. — We have found already that the 
stream of American institutional life exhibits three great 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 83 

and striking phases, and that the first of these is marked 
by being mainly concerned with the rise and growth of 
local institutions. From the manner of settlement the 
ideas and customs out of which these institutions grew 
were planted in groups more or less isolated, and through- 
out the period there was little inter-communication. The 
physical barriers to this were very great. The distance 
between settlements was immense, especially if measured 
by our present standards. Rivers, mountains, dense for- 
ests, savage beasts, and more savage men were almost 
insuperable obstacles to cooperation, even if the disposition 
had existed. To this must be added the very slow means of 
travel which in those days separated colonial capitals by 
thousands of miles, as we estimate travel. In the early 
part of the period, little conscious need of communication 
between governments arose except in New England. Direct 
official connection with England tended to prevent commu- 
nication among the colonies on political matters. For the 
most part, politics was entirely a matter of local concern. 
Therefore this is the period when the forms and functions 
of local self-government had full and free development, 
when the government of the American town and township, 
county and state had their genesis. The same tendency 
prevailed in religious affairs, each colony following the dic- 
tation of local considerations. In fact, religious differences 
emphasized the isolation of colonial institutions, for the 
spirit of persecution was not entirely absent. Similarly, 
each colony followed its own ideas and prejudices in matters 
of education and social life. 



84 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Perhaps commerce was the only thread that bound the 
colonies together, with the feeling that, independently of 
all external dangers, each produced something which the 
other wanted. In addition, it may be noticed that the 
people felt the tie of race, especially when thinking of 
themselves in relation to Spaniards, Frenchmen, and 
Indians. But this feeling came only in times of external 
danger. Whatever germs of connection and union may 
have existed in this period were overshadowed by the facts 
and conditions of institutional isolation. Preeminently, 
then, it was an age for the development of local interests 
and institutions ; and we may safely conclude that the 
origin and development of such ideas and institutions is 
the organizing idea of this period. 

The Organizing Idea at Work. — It has already been 
explained as an important principle of organization that 
the differentiating and the integrating; idea must be iden- 
tical ; that is, the idea which separates this period from the 
other parts of our history must be the idea that unites 
all the parts of this period into a whole. This we have 
already found to be the growth of local institutions, mainly 
out of European ideas and customs. It is this idea, seen 
as the content of the leading facts of the period, that inter- 
prets and integrates them, that puts meaning into them 
and joins them as a whole. It is this same idea that 
furnishes the standard for determining the relative value 
of the events of the period, thus giving them coordination 
and subordination as parts in an organic whole. To illus- 
trate, we may say that the work of John Smith and Roger 



GROWTH OP LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 85 

Williams has the historic content common to all the events 
of this period ; that each contributed to the growth of one 
of the groups of institutions. This identity of significance 
makes them a real part of the period. But how their work 
ranks in the period and with reference to each other 
depends entirely upon the relative amount and kind of 
each man's contribution. 

Phases of the Period. — The content which the organiz- 
ing idea of this period as a whole puts into its facts is 
too general to be alone sufficient for detailed work. It is 
necessary, therefore, to subdivide the period and search 
for more specific and concrete organizing ideas. It must 
be ever in mind that the real parts of a period are to be 
found by looking for differences in its organizing idea — 
differences, in this instance, in the growth of local insti- 
tutional ideas. A careful and discriminating study of life 
in this time will reveal three forms pretty well differen- 
tiated. They do not, however, result from progressive 
evolution, but are, rather, three parallel streams of institu- 
tional ideas that run throughout the entire period. It is 
discovered that these differences coincide in the main with 
the familiar geographical regions of colonial times. It 
may be stated, then, that in New England there was a 
movement toward a general diffusion of rights and privi- 
leges, while in the southern group the predominance of 
growth was in the opposite direction, toward the central- 
ization of rights and privileges. In the middle group 
there was a partial blending of the two movements. 



86 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 



The Diffusion of Eights and Privileges. 

Why the New Differentiation is Made. — These differ- 
ences in the growth of local institutions are not discovered 
for their own sake merely, but that they may serve the mind 
further in the process of organization. It is to this end 
that all separations — analyses — are made in any science, 
for it is only by this process that deeper and more perfect 
integrations — syntheses — are possible. Analysis, alone, 
may annihilate a subject, reducing it to mere isolated frag- 
ments. Isolation is death. To avoid this, and to attain 
the highest result as to discipline and knowledge, the act 
of synthetic organization must invariably follow. In the 
present case each phase of local colonial life must be 
organized under a new and more concrete principle. What 
this new idea is was found when the period was divided 
into its three great phases of institutional life. If life in 
New England is differentiated from that in other groups 
by a movement tending to the diffusion of rights and 
privileges, then this same idea must connect New England 
life into a whole. If diffusion was really the method of 
growth for New England, an examination of its history 
will show events in the main conforming to this law ; the 
most important events relating to government, religion, 
industry, and social life will be seen to come out of, and 
pass into, this great movement toward a fuller and freer 
participation by the people in the affairs of these insti- 
tutions. 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 87 

The Organizing Principle in the Concrete. — Let us look 
at some of the leading facts of New England history to see 
if they contain this principle. The charter of the Massachu- 
setts Bay colony gave twenty-six persons almost unlimited 
power — they could have established an aristocracy or 
have taken great strides toward a democracy. Before 
leaving England with this charter, other persons, by vote 
of its members, were admitted to the rights and privileges 
of the corporation. In 1631 suffrage was extended to 
approved church members. New Haven was the only 
other colony in the group that extended the privileges of 
voting no further than to church members, while in early 
Rhode Island the right was exercised by all men. In 1632 
the settlers at Water-town refused to pay taxes levied by 
the assistants. This led, in 1634, to the establishment of 
representative government in Massachusetts by giving the 
towns the right to elect the members of that part of the 
General Court which finally became the lower house of 
the colonial legislature. In 1635 Massachusetts made her 
judiciary more popular by establishing local courts, whose 
sessions were held in the various towns. About this time 
was legalized the town meeting, the most democratic insti- 
tution of that age. In respect to most of these points, the 
other members of the group — especially Connecticut and 
Rhode Island — were even more progressive. In 1641 
Massachusetts established the famous Body of Liberties, — 
a sort of Magna Charta, as was said. This document was 
passed by the General Court and was submitted to the 
towns of the colony, and is remarkable for the advanced 



88 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

ideas set forth as to the rights of individuals. Connecticut 
and New Haven also framed very liberal constitutions. 
These facts seem to indicate that this organizing principle 
will hold for the growth in political thought. The existence 
of a party in Massachusetts in favor of the ideas of Roger 
Williams and Mrs. Hutchinson 1 proves a movement toward 
differentiation in religious thought, and the fact that many 
who did not agree with them did not favor their banish- 
ment proves a tendency toward toleration. This same 
tendency was stronger at the time the Quakers were pun- 
ished, and had much to do in causing the authorities to 
stop their persecution, and in the witchcraft delusion public 
sentiment opened the prisons and cheated the gallows of 
some of its victims. This sentiment ultimately led Massa- 
chusetts to make reparation to the descendants whose 
ancestors had suffered in the persecution of the Quakers 
and the so-called witches. And later, both Massachusetts 
and Connecticut relieved Quakers and Baptists from ecclesi- 
astical dues. In Rhode Island there was always more 
generous religious fellowship among sects than in Massa- 
chusetts. The Puritan church organization was thoroughly 
democratic. The local congregation was sovereign. There 
was no appeal from its decision. The centralization of 
religious authority in Pope or Bishop was antagonistic to 
everything Puritan. Many other facts of New England's 
religious life can be adduced to demonstrate that in the 
sphere of this institution there was growth under this 

1 The parties to these controversies were all Puritans — a fact that 
is generally overlooked in most of our text-books. 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 89 

great law. If we turn to the subject of education, there, 
too, will be seen conformity to the same dominating 
idea, for in no other department of the people's life was 
the law of the diffusion of rights and privileges more per- 
fectly expressed. The New England public school ! That 
of itself tells the story. No other institution in its day 
did so much to bring the same opportunity to every man's 
child. The founding of the college and the establishment 
of the printing-press were other facts that point in the 
same direction. But what of industry ? Did it, too, push 
Puritan life in the same general direction ? To begin with, 
there was no concentration upon any one occupation. Soil, 
climate, mode of settling, the presence of the sea, and the 
great forest filled with timber and animals — all favored 
variety of occupation. This resulted, naturally, in the 
distribution rather than in the concentration of wealth ; at 
least it gave equal opportunity and a just return for labor. 
The Puritan family in England was freer from the coloring 
of aristocracy than any other, yet, on removing to America, 
it brought many an English custom. But the great move- 
ments indicated were powerful social revelers. Puritan 
legislation began to grow in a new mold, and in 1641 the 
Body of Liberties struck some severe blows at the English 
method of transmitting property. 

The truth of our organizing idea of New England history 
seems to be sufficiently attested by every great feature of 
that historical group, as far as New England could control 
her own destiny ; and we may safely take it as the great 
central idea of this colonial group. It is this idea that the 



90 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

student must find in the individual facts of New England 
history. In order that the case may be put more concretely, 
let us ask what the student must search for in the Eoger 
Williams affair. In the first place he must see this episode 
grow out of the great movement that has been described 
above, — must see Eoger Williams and his few friends as 
representatives of a liberal movement in religious and 
political ideas coming in contact with the old order of 
things as represented by the authorities of the colony. In 
the second place the student must discover how this con- 
flict promoted the movement toward diffusion. In wading 
through the details of the controversy he must look for a 
tendency in public sentiment to either accept the new views 
or to tolerate the presence of their author. This conflict 
could not leave Massachusetts where it found her — there 
had to be growth. No doubt this latter phase of the event's 
content is the more difficult to discover, but it must be 
remembered that it is also the more important part of the 
content — more important because without it the degree 
of progress cannot be measured. 1 It is the new trend 
given to thought and feeling that enables the historian to 
take note of progress. When the leading facts of New 
England's life have been thus interpreted and we see in 
them essentially the same idea, the mind has joined them 

1 It is passing strange that most writers and most students have 
taken this event to prove how narrow and illiberal Puritanism really 
was, and in so doing have shut their eyes to the greater fact that it 
demonstrated its recuperative or progressive power as much as its 
conservatism. 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 91 

into an intelligible whole due to the inherent force of a 
great dominant idea. And when each fact is measured as 
to the extent and degree of this content, we may say that 
each fact has taken its appropriate rank in the whole — 
that each is seen in its true historical perspective. 

Principle Governing the Conduct of New England toward 
English Authority. ■ — The events organized above belong 
to the internal development of New England. There are 
other events growing immediately out of the relations 
between the colonies and the mother country. In what- 
ever form the conflict of authority between them expressed 
itself, the New England colonists were determined to pre- 
serve and increase their rights and privileges. It was a 
principle of action, always more or less consciously guid- 
ing them to exercise as much power as possible and to 
resist all encroachments upon it. This is clearly seen in 
the first great- controversy between 1634 and 1636, when, 
on account of charges against the colony, Massachusetts 
was ordered by an English court to surrender its charter. 
The Governor and Council refused to make answer, while 
the ministers of the colony resolved that " we ought to 
defend our lawful possessions." The General Court, or 
colonial legislature, ordered that new forts be erected, and 
that the people be trained in the use of arms. The danger 
was averted by the crisis in England, and did not return 
till 1646, when the Long Parliament held sway. This body 
claimed the right to reverse the decisions of the colonial 
legislature, and also to give to Massachusetts a new charter. 
Both of these claims were viewed as aggressions by the 



92 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

colony, and were so strongly opposed that parliament did 
not push matters to a crisis. Soon after the Restoration 
Charles II. sent orders to Massachusetts to remove the reli- 
gious qualifications for suffrage, permit the English Church 
to hold meetings, and to have all legal documents run in 
the king's name. There was so much opposition to these 
changes, and some were made so reluctantly, while others 
were not made at all, that royal commissioners were sent 
over in 1664. News of their coming having reached Boston, 
the colonial authorities ordered a fast, a committee was 
given charge of the charter, the trainbands were authorized 
to practice, and other military preparations were made. The 
opposition to the work of the commissioners prevented any 
encroachments upon chartered rights. In the battle of the 
New England colonies for their charters, and in their tem- 
porary defeat in the days of Andros, the same principle of 
action controlled the people and their authorities. Their 
fidelity to it is exhibited in the overthrow of the authority 
of Andros and the rapid return to their former governments. 
In all conflicts of crown officials with the people between 
1700 and 1750, the colonists of New England were true to 
the principle announced above. 

Therefore, for the series of events growing out of the 
relations between New England and the mother country, 
the determination of the colonists to preserve, and, if 
possible, increase their rights and privileges, becomes the 
organizing idea. The teacher will note that this idea and 
motive will be found as content in all the events entering 
into the series, and also that this series as a whole organizes 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 93 

into proper relations, with the series of events embodying 
the diffusion of rights and opportunities. This latter we 
have seen to be the principle of their domestic develop- 
ment, and it was for the preservation of this internal life 
that the fierce opposition to England's encroachments was 
made. 

Centralization of Rights and Opportunities. 

Nature of this Organizing Idea. — The above heading is 
taken as a statement of the most fundamental movement 
common to the institutions of the southern group of 
colonies. An attempt to organize the facts of southern 
colonial history around this idea will be found more diffi- 
cult than the organization of New England history around 
the opposite principle. This difficulty grows out of the 
fact that the political life of the southern group was more 
frequently interrupted by conflicts of the people with the 
officials of the crown or with proprietors, and hence its 
political development was not left as undisturbed, and was 
not allowed to follow its natural tendency as completely 
as in New England. A practical difficulty also confronts 
the teacher or student who searches for events and facts 
bearing on the internal history of the group ; for while most 
of our historians have been diligent in giving us pictures 
of the political collisions * mentioned above, they have not 

1 There is no doubt of the historical significance of these conflicts, 
for they tended to keep alive the spirit of opposition to encroachments 
on the rights of the colonies, but it must be remembered that they 
constitute only one phase of one portion of the people's life. 



94 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

described very fully the events that attended the gradual 
absorption of power and influence by the slaveholders. This 
movement, by which political, social, cultural, and industrial 
opportunities were practically concentrated in the hands of 
the planters, was in the main a silent process. It went 
on, generation after generation, without obtruding itself 
upon the consciousness of the colonists ; but it was none 
the less fundamental and permanent in its character. 

General Causes of the Movement. — The soil of the 
southern colonies was exceedingly fertile, thus making 
agriculture so easy and remunerative that it practically 
became their one great occupation. No other occupation 
in this section could compete with it, and thus the oppor- 
tunity for variety of labor was greatly limited. Besides, 
the warm climate made possible the production of certain 
plants, like tobacco, rice, cotton, and indigo. From the 
nature of these plants and their physical environment, the 
cultivation of them was simple ; it could be performed by 
unskilled labor. These conditions made slave labor pos- 
sible, and the great heat of the section made it seem 
desirable. The employment of the slave soon taught the 
planters that an increase in profit was to be gained by 
increasing the number of slaves. The result of this was an 
increase in the size of the plantation to give room for more 
slaves. The tendency of family pride was also in the direc- 
tion of more slaves and more acres. The planters therefore 
absorbed the most desirable of the agricultural lands. 

Economical Aspects of the Movement. — The first form 
of slavery was not negro slavery, but it was a system of 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 95 

indentured service, by means of which the planters obtained 
white laborers for a term of years by paying their passage 
to America, or by buying their labor from companies who 
made a business of bringing over vagabonds and criminals. 
After his term of service the indentured laborer was turned 
loose — ignorant, poor, and often vicious — to shift for 
himself. These people furnished the beginnings of that 
class which, later, was the product of negro slavery — the 
poor whites. To the indentured servant after his contract 
expired, and to other non-slaveholders, three things were 
open : 1. They could be day-laborers, the easiest and 
most likely thing to be done. This, too, was the most 
hopeless thing that could befall the poor whites. In this 
sphere, they came into either direct or indirect competition 
with the negro slave. Not only did the presence of the 
slave give them less work to do, but for the part that 
fell to them the wages were small, from the fact that the 
cheaper form of labor was always present. 2. They could 
emigrate, and thus remove themselves from the immediate 
presence of slavery. Those dissatisfied could, and hun- 
dreds did, move out upon the frontier or up into the 
mountains, where lands were cheaper. They thus became 
independent farmers on a small scale. The more enter- 
prizing settlers direct from Europe, not yet affected by the 
virus of slavery, furnished by far the greater number of 
border farmers. But even this more ambitious class felt 
the unequal contest with slavery. The products of their 
more humble efforts had to go into the same market and 
compete with the products of the plantation — products 



96 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

produced at the lowest possible cost. Their profits could 
not be proportionally as high as the planter's, because the 
labor that produced their tobacco or other products ate more 
and better food, wore more and better clothes, and required 
better shelter. If the non-slaveholders were still more 
ambitious, and if their knowledge was equal to their ambi- 
tion, they frequently crossed the border into the northern 
or middle colonies, where disastrous competition was least 
felt. 3. Finally, it was barely possible, but not probable, 
that they might become slaveholders on a small scale. 

There was little opportunity outside of agriculture. 
The sparseness of the population, the absence of towns 
and cities, and the consequent absence of the variety in 
occupation which gave encouragement to large numbers 
of intelligent and industrious laborers in the middle and 
northern colonies, compelled the non-slaveholder to labor 
in a field already too well occupied. Slavery gave the 
planter leisure, but it added to the time the non-slave- 
holder must work if he hoped to gain a competence or even 
the comforts of life. Slavery gave wealth to the planter, 
but denied it to the non-slaveholder. The tendency, eco- 
nomically, was to put the wealth of the colony into the 
hands of planters. 

Social and Educational Effects. — Closely allied with 
the economic differences between those two classes was 
the contrast in their social life. In no other form of 
southern institutional life is the reign of the principle of 
growth, stated in the beginning, more strikingly apparent 
than in social life. The gulf between the family of the 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 97 

slaveholder and the family of the non-slaveholder was 
often so wide as to be impassable. The immediate causes 
of this contrast in social standing are found in the fact 
that one family had wealth, leisure, and refinement, while 
the other was poor and had to labor, — conditions akin 
to slavery, — and was often marked by the absence of 
refinement and intelligence. On one side was family pride 
and many things to stimulate it — ancestry, acres, and 
slaves ; on the other was a family often lacking in every- 
thing which constitutes the basis of family pride, with 
poverty often as deep as that of the slave, and even more 
pitiable, and with ignorance so dense as to be entirely un- 
conscious. Naturally, there could be but little fellowship 
between families so widely separated by such social con- 
trasts. 

In the southern group there were few public schools 
such, as were known in New England. In the absence of 
general and public means of education there was little 
opportunity for the non-slaveholder to educate his children. 
He might teach them the rudiments of learning, if per- 
chance he knew them himself. If he was above the 
average non-slaveholder in point of wealth, the parson or 
some indigent scholar might be found to tutor them. The 
rule was that neither was found. Sometimes a substitute 
was discovered in the person of an indented servant. But 
all these results were only a few drops in the great ocean 
of ignorance. Thus it seems that the lack of education 
was a means to perpetuate the condition of the non- 
slaveholder. How could he rise ? Where was his leverage ? 



98 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

In contrast with this, the children of the planter conld 
have an education if their desires ran in that direction. 
Many of them had private tutors. Some went to the 
College of William and Mary, others to northern schools, 
while the more wealthy and ambitious went abroad for 
their schooling. This disparity between the two classes 
in education had much to do in perpetuating social and 
other differences. In view of this condition of the two 
classes, we may safely say that the principle of concen- 
tration finds another powerful confirmation. 

How the Principle Worked in Politics and in Religion. — 
With all these differences of wealth, family position, and 
education, it is not only not a matter of surprise, but was 
the most natural and fitting thing that the slaveholders 
should receive all the political offices. They were, and it 
was practically necessary that they should be, the recipients 
of political preferment at the hands of the crown and also 
at the hands of the people. No other class in this group 
could furnish men who could measure up to the needs of 
colonial government as closely as the slaveholders. But 
besides the question of fitness, their social position, wealth, 
and possible influence would have gained for them political 
recognition. It was not unnatural, that with political power 
mainly in their hands they should be tempted to use it to 
promote their own interests. This was accomplished in 
many ways ; but the most effective was the requirement 
of a given land qualification for suffrage, and a larger one 
for office-holding. In some instances, the tax on personal 
property was heavier, in proportion, than that on real estate. 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 99 

Add to these the custom of the crown or proprietor of ap- 
pointing only persons of high degree to places in the upper 
house of the colonial legislature, and we have all the con- 
ditions for the concentration of political power and in- 
fluence in the hands of one class. 

We thus see that each phase of institutional life, except 
religion, has been tested in the light of this principle of 
growth and has in the main confirmed the position assumed 
in the beginning. How about religious thought and feel- 
ing ? Do they grow under the same law ? So far as 
social and political interests touched religious customs and 
machinery, the tendency was to put their control in the 
hands of the aristocratic element. The English Church was 
the dominant organization in this group of colonies ; and 
its influence was not, generally, such as would destroy this 
tendency, even if it did not purposely strengthen it. There 
were, in many cases, limitations placed on the exercise 
of free religious opinion, and even when dissenters were 
allowed to organize churches they labored under the dis- 
advantage of competing with a church that either was 
supported directly, or was encouraged by the colonial 
government. There is, therefore, in these limitations on 
religious rights and privileges something akin to what we 
have witnessed in the other great institutions. 

• The peculiarity of all sides of life in the southern col- 
onies, which we have been studying, did not, as might be 
expected, unfit the slaveholders for active and aggressive 
work in the Revolution. The love of personal and polit- 
ical independence was as strong as it was in the feudal 



100 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

lords that snatched English liberty from King John. 
And in the southern colonies, where the favors of the 
crown did not stifle it, this old spirit flared up as quickly 
as in the more democratic regions of New England. The 
slaveholders formed the backbone of the Revolution in the 
South, and did much to marshal the non-slaveholders in 
defence of freedom. There were some features of the war 
that were not found in the North, but the centralization 
of power and privilege did not seriously check its progress 
in the southern section. 

Conclusion. — The above discussion is historical rather 
than pedagogical. It has, however, this bearing on the proc- 
ess of thinking : by it we have demonstrated the existence 
of a law of growth in southern colonial life, which law is 
to play the part of the " organizing idea " of the history of 
this group, at least so far as internal influences are con- 
cerned. This " concentration of power and opportunity " 
is the idea that the student must keep with him in trying 
to investigate southern life in this period. This idea is to 
illuminate the facts of every phase of the people's life in 
this age, and these in turn are to enrich and give con- 
creteness to this principle of historical development. 

It may not be amiss to suggest here that in the light of 
the above discussion it is entirely feasible, and for many 
reasons very desirable, that the colonies be studied in 
groups rather than as isolated colonies. The student, in his 
first study, should, perhaps, take each one in detail, but a 
second going over the subject, if only in review, should 
be devoted to laying emphasis on the features common to 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 101 

tlie members of the same group. This should be done for 
the sake of the knowledge as well as for the reason that 
time may be saved. The knowledge thus gained will have 
in it an element not to be had by studying isolated colonies ; 
it will show the student that the great overshadowing 
features of life in one member were to be found in the 
other members of the same group. For purposes of histori- 
cal interpretation this will entirely suffice. Why should 
the student be required to wade through a maze of dis- 
similar events only to find the same set of ideas ? The 
value to the student of discovering the same idea in more 
than one set of particulars should be fully recognized, but 
there must be a limit to this unless great modifications 
are found in the ideas as the result of their varying 
embodiment. Such is not the case in the southern and 
northern groups. It seems that the principle of concrete 
expression of ideas and customs would be fully satisfied by 
selecting a representative colony of each group, say, Massa- 
chusetts for the northern, Virginia for the southern, and 
Pennsylvania for the middle group. 

The Principle Governing the Attitude of the Southern 
Colonists toward English Authority. — As stated at the 
opening of the discussion on the law governing the internal 
development of southern institutions, historians have given 
much time to the events touching the relations between 
the colonial and the home governments. The cause pro- 
ducing these events is the frequent action of the mother 
country. This action, though frequent, was not continuous, 
hence ordinarily it is difficult to find a common and con- 



102 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

nected content for these facts. This difficulty is not 
diminished by the nature of the events themselves, for 
they range over the whole list of possible occurrences. 
While this is true, yet if we analyze these events for the 
attitude of the colonial mind toward the exercise of Eng- 
lish authority over them, we shall discover in the southern 
group the same state of sentiment as was found in New 
England, — a determination to exercise for themselves as 
much power as possible, and to oppose all encroachments, 
whether made directly by king and parliament, or indi- 
rectly by the colonial governments. This attitude is found 
in Virginia, when James I. took the charter from the 
London Company, when Charles I. made an effort to get 
control of the tobacco trade or sided with Governor Harvey, 
when Cromwell sent his war vessels and commissioners, 
and when Bacon defied the authority of Governor Berkeley. 
Likewise in the Carolinas, whether they were contending 
with proprietors under Locke's Grand Model, or contesting 
the aggressions of colonial governors appointed by the king, 
the same principle of conduct animated them. Because of 
her internal disturbances, Maryland presents fewer cases 
of conflict with king and governors than either Virginia or 
the Carolinas ; but where cases of invaded rights were clear, 
the settlers of Maryland proved their right to be regarded 
as true Englishmen. 

In discussing New England's relation to English au- 
thority, we found that the events connected therewith 
grew out of the people's efforts to maintain securely the 
institutional life of the group, especially as related to 



GROWTH OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. 103 

politics, religion, and commerce. The same relation exists 
in the southern group between these two series of events. 
The opposition here was not for its own sake, but for the 
purpose of protecting the institutions' of the colonies from 
dangerous encroachments which tended to limit the parti- 
cipation of the people in their functions. 

The Middle Colonies. 

Internal Institutional Growth. — The diversity of races, 
of religious and political institutions in this group makes 
it impossible to discover a dominant movement in colonial 
times for the group as a whole. Here we have a popula- 
tion foreshadowing that of our times. Here were the 
Dutch, Swedes, Germans, Scotch, Welsh, Irish, and English. 
Each was wedded to the ideas and institutions of his native 
land, and thus presented many barriers to the develop- 
ment of a characteristic tendency in internal affairs. 
New York partook, to some extent, of the characteristics 
of New England, especially late in the colonial period, 
but in its early days, Dutch influence was paramount ; it 
did not, however, extend into other colonies. New Jersey 
and Delaware were much influenced by their proximity to 
the southern group, and the latter became a slave state. 
The conditions favoring diversity in Pennsylvania were so 
great that it had little in common with the other members 
of the group. Thus it appears that no law of development 
can be found for this group as a whole unless it be the law 
of diversity. This makes the organization of the history 
of this group as a whole quite unsatisfactory. No doubt 



104 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

an analysis of the internal life of each colony would present 
some idea to serve as its organizing principle, but work so 
detailed hardly belongs to the scope of the present discussion. 

Attitude of Middle Colonies toward English Authority. 
■ — While it may be difficult to discover an internal move- 
ment common to all the members of the middle group of 
colonies, it is not at all difficult to find the common prin- 
ciple animating the people of each colony with reference 
to extension of English authority. Particularly is this 
true of the two great members of the group, — New York 
and Pennsylvania. -Almost from the day of their birth, 
the people of these two colonies were in conflict with their 
respective local authorities, whose functions and powers 
were drawn from royal authority. Sometimes the opposi- 
tion was in the minority, but it kept on its struggle. In 
many cases the victory was only defensive, and simply 
held what had been gained, but from 1700 to the Revolu- 
tion the people became aggressive and won real advances 
in rights and opportunities. 

We thus discover that a common principle of action 
controlled the people of all the colonies in dealing with 
questions relating to the extension of British authority over 
them. This gives us a common interpreting and coordinat- 
ing principle for all events falling under this category. Of 
course, with reference to the future, the discovery of this 
common content is full of significance, for it shows the 
gradual divergence of English and American political ideas, 
and that the spirit of the Revolution was born of a century 
or more of rough experience with English officials. 



PERIOD OF THE GROWTH OF UNION. 



The Period as a Whole. 

The Transition from Isolation to Union. — The law of 

differentiation operating in history makes every age to 
some extent a period of transition. The law of continuity, 
however, so controls the movement of the dominant idea 
that the growth of this idea may consist in merely passing 
from one stage of itself to another. But what may be 
termed transitions proper are changes marked either by the 
appearance of new ideas and sentiments, or by growth in 
the old ideas to such an extent that the changes practically 
amount to new movements. These transitions proper are 
most marked on the border lines between periods, and are 
usually characterized by events whose content partakes of 
both the old and the new movement. 

The transition in the present case marks the passage 
from the first to the second of the great coordinate 
movements in our institutional life. If the student is to 
be guided by the laws of growth he must search for the 
germs of the second period far back in the midst of the 
first. In the midst of isolation he must look for some 
signs of union. One of these, the tie of race, has already 
been mentioned. The English colonists felt that they 
were one against Indians, Spaniards, and Frenchmen. 



106 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Even in the first portion of the colonial era England made 
the Americans feel that her commercial interests and theirs 
were not identical. The renewal and extension of the navi- 
gation laws under Charles II., the creation of the Boards 
of Trade under William and Mary, the limitations on the 
woolen trade in the same reign, the passage of the impor- 
tation act of 1733, and many other limitations upon colonial 
industry, tended to strengthen the conviction that the inter- 
ests of the colonists and those of the mother country were 
not identical, at least in the eyes of British merchants and 
legislators. Out of these restrictions and this conviction, 
aided by the desire of gain, grew and flourished the 
colonial smuggling trade. American merchants and ship- 
pers troubled themselves very little about the moral ques- 
tions, and soon there arose a loose sort of cooperation among 
the smugglers of the various ports ; this was a germ of 
union that quickly developed into the merchant organiza- 
tions of the Eevolution. Another cause of the colonists 
uniting in thought and feeling against England, we have 
already found in the fact that, in all their struggles with 
governors, judges, and other royal officials, she stood against 
the claims of the people and supported those of the 
officials. While these contests over authority did not lead 
to any form of cooperation in the colonial time, yet they did 
create a state of mind which furnished a basis for union. 
Another thread of sympathy and cooperation existed in 
the first period, — dangers from the Erench and the Indians. 
These dangers were constant between 1690 and 1763, and 
were common to nearly all the colonies. That the English 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 107 

colonies so felt is abundantly proven by the long line of 
intercolonial meetings covering this time, there having 
been more than a dozen conferences between represen- 
tatives of various colonies ; sometimes only the representa- 
tives of one group were present, but at one time or another 
all the colonies were thus in friendly cooperation. The 
immediate result of these conferences was a series of 
cooperative military and naval expeditions against the 
common enemy. In teaching the colonies the lesson of 
helpful and sympathetic cooperation in military affairs, 
the so-called intercolonial wars furnished the experience 
out of which a more perfect union might arise. In still 
another way, but indirectly, these wars and their attendant 
intercommunication prepared the way for union by break- 
ing down to some extent the prejudices, religious and 
social, which various colonies entertained, and thus tended 
to remove some of the barriers- to union erected in the 
period of isolation. These examples ought to be sufficient 
to prove that even in the period when local interests and 
institutions were dominant, new impulses were beginning to 
differentiate themselves from the prevailing condition and 
to move forward to the conquest of the future. 

The Period Proper. — The real nature of the thought- 
movement of this period is foreshadowed in the lines of 
growth already indicated. It is indeed a movement from 
isolation to union. The preceding discussion, however, has 
not pointed out the special circumstances under which the 
impulse to union gained so mighty an impetus that it 
absorbed the energy of the whole people, and thus made 



108 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

it the dominant movement of an era. The intercolonial 
wars left England apparently almost hopelessly in debt, 
and even before the close of the last one she began to 
devise means to raise a larger revenue in America. This 
determination led the custom-house officials of Boston to 
apply for writs of assistance as a means of breaking up 
smuggling. James Otis came to the rescue and made his 
great argument by appealing to the English constitution. 1 
The result was regarded as a victory for all the colonies. 
The failure to enforce the old laws of trade led to their 
modification in 1763. This new law was a sort of confis- 
cation act, because its most striking feature provided that 
the navy should be used to destroy the smuggling trade 
by confiscation of smuggled goods. It stimulated the 
cupidity of the naval officers, the governors, the judges, 
and the military officials by allowing them to share in the 
confiscations. Commerce with the West Indies was threat- 
ened with destruction. A storm of protests swept over to 
England. American commerce was greatly damaged, but 
England gained nothing. Erom now on, parliamentary 
legislation concerning America produced at each step the 
same results, — drove the colonies farther from England 
and closer to one another. The Stamp Act brought in its 
train colonial correspondence, a congress, non-importation 

1 In this speech Otis struck the "keynote" of the first phase of 
the American revolution. Lecky's England, vol. iii. p. 336, says that 
it excited great enthusiasm in the colonies. Extracts from the speech 
are found in Tudor's Life of James Otis, and in Mace's Working 
Manual of American History. 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 109 

societies, Sons and Daughters of Liberty, and a whirlwind 
of indignation. The Tea Tax, the Massachusetts Circular 
Letter, the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Port Bill, and 
other events all produced similar results, — closer unity in 
sentiment, and greater cooperation in action. On this one- 
ness of mind and heart independence rested for its declara- 
tion and its success. The growth of union and the success 
of the war were mutually dependent. This same sentiment 
gave existence to the Confederation, and as it waxed or 
waned, the Confederation was strong or weak. But the 
great process of unification went on and finally gave us 
the form of a nation, — the Constitution of the United 
States, the crowning event of the American Revolution. 

Organization of the Period as a Whole. — The above 
brief examination of the thought and feeling of this period 
is made to show that an organizing idea in history is not 
an arbitrary whim or invention, but is a real, vital thing to 
be discovered by probing into the very essence of the facts 
to be organized, is a scientific induction drawn from a most 
careful and penetrating analysis and comparison of the 
facts observed. 1 It will be noticed that this examination 
confirms what we saw when dividing our history into its 
great coordinate parts, and also what was seen above when 
tracing the evolution of this period out of the life of the 
preceding, — that the differentiating mark of this phase of 
our life is the growth of the sentiment of union. If the 

1 It is not intended even to suggest that the examination of the 
above events constitutes the process of induction necessary to reach 
the organizing idea. 



110 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

results of these examinations did not mutually support one 
another there could be no organization. For this idea of 
union could not interpret the events of this period, if it 
did not at the same time set them off from the events of 
the other periods. This is a test which must be satis- 
fied by the organizing principle of science ; otherwise 
it cannot lay claim to the function of such an idea. The 
ultimate test, of course, comes in the process of inter- 
pretation, when the student is carefully searching for the 
content — for the true significance — of the individual 
facts. If the induction is a true one this detailed and 
painstaking search will only reveal in this period the 
idea of union in greater fullness. It is finding this iden- 
tity of content in the series of events called the Revolution 
that enables the mind to see it as an organically related 
whole. Here are events so widely different in aspect as 
almost to lose the student in the maze of differences, but 
under the direction of this idea of union we find them all 
akin. Identity of content is the only law of mind or of 
history that will enable the student to organize so many 
diverse facts into a logical historical whole. 

The time between 1760 and 1789 was rich with events ; 
and their systematic study as a whole must be carried 
further by measuring their relative value as a means to 
give them rank in the period. This is accomplished 
by comparing these events as to their relative contri- 
bution to the growth of the dominant idea of this time. 
Not only as a matter of knowledge but as a matter pertain- 
ing to the intelligent direction of others, the teacher must 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. Ill 

answer such questions as this : Which event will give the 
student the deepest insight into the great movement toward 
unity in thought and action, — the struggle over the Writs 
of Assistance, the Stamp Act Congress, the Boston Tea 
Party, the battle of Lexington, the creation of the Confed- 
eration, or the ratifying conventions that established the 
Constitution ? This question asked and answered for the 
leading facts of the Revolution will give them their true 
rank in the period, — their proper coordination and sub- 
ordination in the series. The student will thus be able to 
view them in their true historical perspective. Then the 
period is no longer a chaos of facts, but each one stands in 
the place assigned it by its own historical significance. 

The Phases of the Period. — As a means to a scientific 
knowledge of the period as a whole, there can be no doubt 
concerning the value of the general process of organization 
just explained. But the general idea of union, as the con- 
tent for events taken singly or in groups smaller than 
that of the period, is not adequate, — is too abstract for 
purposes of detailed study and organization. This would 
leave the content of revolutionary events not only vague, 
but necessarily also the student's notion of the movement 
of union would be indefinite. Hence, for the sake of the 
organizing idea as well as for a more concrete content to 
give to individual facts, the idea of union must be pushed 
out into all its different manifestations — into all the shades 
of meaning that it took on in its process of evolution. To 
obtain this richer content we must appeal to another great 
function of our organizing idea — the division of the period 



112 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

into its organic parts. In obedience to the principle of 
logical division, and in harmony with the laws of continu- 
ity and differentiation, we mnst find these parts by dis- 
covering differences in the growth of the sentiment of 
nnion. In casting the eye along the course of this mighty 
current between 1760 and 1789, there appear two general 
differences. In one part of the stream, thought and feeling 
are flowing in unison against England, while in the other, 
ideas and sentiments are moving toward agreement as to 
the proper relations between the states and the general 
government. Union against England dominated public 
sentiment from 1760 to 1783, and union on domestic ques- 
tions had its beginning about 1775 and grew in intensity 
till 1789. These forms of union constitute the two great 
coordinate phases of the period of revolution. These two 
phases overlap, which is proof that the parts are histori- 
cally true and were really organic forms of the people's 
thought, and not mere artificial inventions. 

Union against England. 

Organizes Events from 1760 to 1783 into a Series. — 

Since the idea of union against England differentiates the 
first from the second half of this period, it must also 
integrate all the leading facts of the first half. Union 
against England will be found as their chief common 
content. Whether we study the Massachusetts Circular 
Letter, the Congress of 1774, the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, Washington's retreat through the Jerseys, or Bur- 
goyne's campaign, the greatest common significance we 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 113 

can find in them is the relation of union to them as cause 
and their reaction upon it as effect. The problem is not 
entirely solved when all the facts are thus traced into this 
great stream of public sentiment. These events must 
stand in the mind in orderly arrangement. If a true his- 
torical sense is to be developed in the student, they must 
be given rank on basis of their contribution to maintaining 
union against England. We see that this is a more con- 
crete and definite organizing idea than the general idea of 
union. Perhaps it is possible to discover a still more 
substantial organizing idea. This can come, as we have 
often seen, only by discovering the inherent differences in 
the growth of the organizing idea, — in this case, union 
against England. A glance at this growth will reveal two 
contrasting phases : Union against England on the basis 
of the Rights of Englishmen, extending from about 1760 
to 1775, and most fully expressed in the Declaration of 
Rights ; and union against England on the basis of the 
Rights of Man, which extended from 1775 to 1783, and 
best expressed in the Declaration of Independence. 

Union on the Basis of Rights of Englishmen. — The 
growth of union on the basis of the Rights of Englishmen 
is, in the order of time, the first phase of the American 
Revolution. To secure their rights as British subjects 
under the British Constitution was the animating thought 
that organized resistance to every measure of king or par- 
liament aiming at an infringement of colonial privileges. 
It was the inspiration of this idea that first made Ameri- 
cans one in thought and sentiment, and concentrated their 



114 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

efforts in every struggle from the Writs of Assistance to 
the battle of Lexington. The resolutions of town meet- 
ings and of colonial assemblies, petitions to the king and 
addresses to the English parliament and people by the 
Continental Congress, the organization and work of the 
Sons and Daughters of Liberty, the Committees of Corre- 
spondence, the Non-importation and Non-exportation socie- 
ties, the passage of the Stamp Act, Tea Tax, and Boston 
Port Bill, the Boston Massacre and the Tea Party, either 
consciously aimed at, or unconsciously produced, a union 
to obtain the rights common to all Englishmen. The 
development of this sentiment, then, must be taken as the 
organizing idea for all the facts of this first part of the 
union against England. To trace the connection between 
these individual facts and this great idea — to see each of 
them producing it or produced by it, or both — is to inter- 
pret them. 

A formal interpretation of some one of the events of 
this time may serve to make plainer the process by which 
a concrete organizing idea performs its work. Let it be a 
familiar one, — the Stamp Act Congress. The process of 
interpreting this event must follow the general principle 
already laid down, and therefore requires two things of the 
student : 1. That he show, if possible, the congress to be 
an outgrowth of union and cooperation already in existence. 
2. That he show to what extent and in w r hat way this 
meeting gave new impulses to thought and action directed 
to secure a united effort for the Bights of Englishmen. 
The student has seen this movement going on as the result 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 115 

of a number of conflicts before the time of the Stamp Act. 
Besides, it was more than a year after the first news of the 
Stamp Act reached America that the congress convened. 
During this time he has been watching public sentiment 
take form. He has seen organized opposition begin in 
the towns, and has noted its transfer to colonial legis- 
latures through instructions to representatives. From 
capital to capital, and from town to capital and back 
again, he has watched the news of agitation spread over 
the continent. This system of intercommunication he saw 
carry the burning words of Patrick Henry to every colony 
both North and South, giving courage and enthusiasm to 
all the people till a call for a congress resounded over all 
the land. By this process the student has been accumulat- 
ing meaning for the congress, so that when he comes to it 
he is historically prepared for it. It stands to him as the 
expression of a great idea — an idea that moves profoundly 
the mind and heart of an entire people. The meeting of 
this congress is not to him an empty happening which 
might or might not have occurred; but he sees its vital 
connection with the public sentiment that gave it birth, 
and hence views it as an occurrence which is natural, if 
not necessary. 

The work of this meeting must also be looked at from 
the point of view of its effects on the growth of union. 
Even the greatness of the men comprising the congress 
has this significance. The eminence of that body only 
gave greater impetus to the movement among the people. 
One of the marked features of the work accomplished was 



116 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

that it came almost unanimously from their hands. This 
fact was of no small consequence^ for agreement among the 
leaders made the rank and file harmonious. The Declara- 
tion of Eights — the most important document issued by 
the congress — was calculated greatly to strengthen one- 
ness in thought and action because it gave to the struggle 
a constitutional basis. This document, distributed among 
the people, read, debated, and talked over, was not only 
felt to be a justification of what had been done, but was a 
powerful educator of the public mind as to the ground of 
resistance. The loyal and warm-hearted petition of the 
congress to the king touched a responsive chord every- 
where in America ; it truly expressed the sentiments of 
Americans toward their sovereign, and, taken with the 
Declaration of Bights, it showed how loyalty and love of 
liberty grow side by side — how loyalty does not mean 
servility, nor union treason. Thus we see that every 
important point connected with the congress touches the 
union to secure the Rights of Englishmen. 

It is quite possible to put into the Stamp Act Congress 
a more specific and individualized content than union for 
the Eights of Englishmen, i.e., union against internal taxa- 
tion ; but we have carried the process far enough for 
purposes of illustration. In the light of this process of 
organization, we see in this event a very perfect gradation 
of ideas. In the first place, beginning with the lowest 
degree of generality, the Stamp Act Congress expresses 
the immediate determination of the people to secure the 
repeal of the Stamp Act. The discovery of this idea in its 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 117 

content makes this congress a member of a series of events 
that were means in trying to reach the same end. With 
this idea in mind for its content, it is a member of the 
smallest of the various series to which it belongs. Rising 
a step higher in the scale of generality, we found in the 
Stamp Act Congress an idea common to all great events 
between 1761 and 1775, — union to secure the Rights of 
Englishmen ; here it becomes akin to the struggle over the 
Writs of Assistance, the Massachusetts Circular Letter, 
the Boston Tea Party, and the congress of 1774. In this 
same event we also found the more general idea of union 
against England ; thus giving it place and meaning in a 
wider range of facts. It is now allied to the battle of 
Bunker Hill, the Declaration of Independence, Valley 
Forge, the treason of Arnold, and the surrender of Corn- 
wallis. But this congress of 1765 contains the general 
idea of union — an idea that threads every great event of 
the American Revolution. In embodying union in its gen- 
eral form, the Stamp Act Congress strikes hands with 
the transformation of colonial into state governments, the 
Articles of Confederation, Shay's Rebellion, the cession of 
western lands, the formation of the Society of the Cincin- 
nati, and the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Rising 
once more and finally in the scale of generality, we have in 
this event an idea that permeates all the facts of our his- 
tory — the evolution of the life of the American people. 
What is true of this event is true of the period of the Revo- 
lution, and what is true of this period is true of our entire 
history : it can be organized into a Hierarchy of Ideas. 



118 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Union on Basis of the Rights of Man. — This is the 
second phase of the struggle against England, and has its 
origin when public sentiment begins to pass over from the 
Rights of Englishmen to the Rights of Man. The germs 
of this new basis of union are found in the preceding 
struggle. " The rights of man/' " natural rights," and 
similar expressions are found in the speeches and writings 
of Otis, Henry, and in the documents of legislatures and 
congresses. The genesis of the new movement was greatly 
stimulated by the failure of the great efforts of Chatham 
and Burke at conciliation, and by the attitude of king and 
parliament toward the petitions of the congresses of 1774 
and 1775. The congress of 1775 sent a final petition to the 
king by the hand of a good loyalist, Richard Penn. While 
waiting for the king's answer, the congress, in order not to 
prejudice the petition's reception, refused to undertake 
any measure looking toward independence. When, how- 
ever, word came that the king refused to reply to the 
petition, proclaimed the colonists rebels, and provided 
for mercenary troops, the congress went forward rapidly 
with measures that looked toward independence. Lex- 
ington and Bunker Hill had already occurred, and the 
siege of Boston was in progress. Paine's Common Sense 
came in January, 1776, to add argument to the force of 
events in favor of separation. These and other events 
convinced the majority of the people that England would 
never grant their coveted English rights. This conviction 
forced them to contemplate a broader and a more generous 
basis of action, — the Rights of Man. The ripening of this 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 119 

new sentiment produced the Declaration of Independence, 
— the best formulation of the Eights of Man ever penned. 

In the winter and spring of 1776 various colonies began, 
with the advice of congress, to reorganize their local gov- 
ernments. New Hampshire and South Carolina were among 
the earliest to form a government based on the " consent of 
the governed." In April, 1776, North Carolina instructed 
her delegates in congress to cooperate with the other col- 
onies in measures for independence. May 4th, Rhode 
Island disclaimed allegiance to the king, and instructed its 
delegates in congress to promote union and confedera- 
tion. The great commonwealth of Virginia, in convention 
assembled, voted (May 15th) to instruct its representatives 
in congress to propose a declaration of independence, con- 
federation, and foreign alliances. This action was trans- 
mitted to the other colonial assemblies. On June 12th 
the convention issued a " Declaration of the Eights of Man." 
Of course Massachusetts, in 1775, had overthrown the royal 
government. Thus the movement away from the Eights of 
Englishmen and forward to the Eights of Man went on till 
the summer of 1776, when the more conservative colonies 
could withstand the agitation no longer, and where the 
regular colonial authorities refused to instruct for indepen- 
dence, popular conventions assumed that function. The 
formal Declaration of Independence marks the triumph of 
the new basis of union in the minds and hearts of the 
American people. Its permanent triumph in institutional 
organization will be determined by the fortunes of war. 

The enumeration of the above facts is not for the pur- 



120 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

pose of tracing all the causes that gave rise to the change 
in American thought and feeling, but rather to show 
how union for the Eights of Man 1 becomes the domi- 
nant idea for the second phase of union against England. 
This also serves to show that our organizing idea in this 
new phase of the Revolution is not merely assumed or 
invented, but is the essence of that phase of institutional 
life which most completely absorbed the energies of the 
people for that time, — a movement so fundamental that 
the immediate past flowed into it, and the immediate 
future sprang out of it. 

The Organization of Military Events. — After the dec- 
laration was made, most of the events connected with this 
phase of the Revolution were military in character. Even 
those not strictly military were more or less a means to 
the progress of the war. Battles and campaigns are a 
class of historical facts that have puzzled teachers and 
students. For a number of years less and less attention 
has been given to their study. Some persons urge their 
omission from text-books altogether. This is a natural 
reaction against the old-time view of history which made 
it consist largely of wars and the career of warriors. Such 
was, no doubt, a very one-sided and superficial view of the 

1 The expression "Rights of Man" really names more funda- 
mentally the content of this movement than either "Independence " 
or " Separation." The latter are more frequently used, but the stu- 
dent must see that separation is likely to seem more of an act and 
less of a growth than the rights of man. Besides, independence is 
rightly viewed as a means to the realization of the rights of men in 
American institutions. 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 121 

subject; but it may be safely held that the military side 
of history will never again dominate our books and our 
teaching. Persons who oppose the study of military 
events altogether generally do so on some ground outside 
the subject-matter of history. This may be a worthy 
ground of opposition, but it is one which method in his- 
torical study can hardly take into consideration, and so 
the question still remains: Have battles and wars no his- 
torical significance ? Shall the battles of the Revolution 
have a place in our study ? Most persons will answer 
this question affirmatively; but in order to understand the 
ground for the answer, this question must be asked: Did 
the battles of the Eevolution have anything to do with 
the real Eevolution? This can be answered only in 
the affirmative, thus giving military events a place in the 
study; but what place or rank is not indicated. For an 
intelligent understanding of the subject, as well as for 
pedagogical purposes, we need to determine more carefully 
what content and what value are to be given to such 
events in the study of this part of the conflict. This can 
be done only by the aid of the organizing idea of this part 
of the subject. The relation which the battles had to 
the sentiment of union in general, and to union against 
England for the Rights of Man in particular, is the stand- 
ard to which we must appeal. It may be remarked that 
some think the Revolutionary War was the Revolution; 
but we have seen one phase of the struggle end before the 
war began. The battles of the Revolution were hardly 
a part of the real Revolution. They were the sign — the 



122 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

external evidence — that there was a real revolution in 
the minds and hearts of the people; they were also the 
means by which the Rights of Man were secured — by 
which the advance in thought and feeling was made per- 
manent. The relation between the war and the new form 
of union was, therefore, an intimate one. It may be stated 
in another way: the relation between them was one of 
mutual dependence; the success or failure of one was the 
most potent factor in giving strength or weakness to the 
other. Perfect cooperation and union among the people 
won victories, and oftentimes victories aroused their spirit 
to more hearty and enthusiastic support for the cause. 
Hence the rise and fall in the tide of public sentiment 
cannot be traced from 1775 to 1783 without some study of 
the military events of that time. But how shall we study 
a battle ? What, for instance, is the problem to be solved 
in studying the battle of Lexington ? Our organizing prin- 
ciples — union for the Eights of Englishmen and union 
for the Eights of Man — must give answer. How the sen- 
timent of union, already in existence, tended to cause the 
battle, and how the battle in turn affected the spirit of one- 
ness among the people. The student must see flowing into 
this battle all the preparations the colonists had made: 
the formation of committees of safety, the organization of 
minute men, the manufacture and storing of munitions 
of war, the establishment of means of rapid communication 
between Boston and the villages and country to enable 
them to watch the British and to alarm the country in 
case of danger. All these, and others like them, were 



THE GllOWTH OF UNION. 123 

phases of the cooperation that made such a fight possible. 
The movement toward union, manifesting itself in these 
various ways, was the true cause of the battle, its char- 
acter, and its immediate result. How much more meaning 
is given to this event by viewing it in this way than by 
seeing it as the result only of a purpose on the part of the 
British to destroy military stores ! We now turn the battle 
towards its results and see how its content is enriched. 
First, let us see how not to do it. How this skirmish 
wrought up public opinion to so high a pitch is not to be 
discovered by trying to decide which party fired the first 
shot, nor by quoting the language used by Major Pitcairn 
as he bade the minute men lay down their arms, nor by 
trying to remember the number killed, wounded, and miss- 
ing on each side. One might know all these facts, and 
many more of the accidental features of the affair, and yet 
not see the flame of indignation that swept over the land 
and made the people think and act as one man. A part of 
the answer to the problem of the battle of Lexington is to 
be found by seeing the response that came in the form of 
minute men from thirty Massachusetts towns before that 
day's work was over, and from all New England and the 
country at large in the days and weeks that immediately 
followed this contest. This answer is further to be read 
in the assembly of twenty thousand provincials around 
Boston, and in the patriotic resolves and energetic meas- 
ures of the colonial assemblies, as they took up the burden 
of war. After this manner are we to interpret the battles 
of the war. 



124 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The interpretation of the above battle makes the prob- 
lem in the study of a military event the same in kind 
as that connected with any other event. The historical 
significance of a battle can be obtained in no other way. 
To study it as a military event, or a war as a series of 
military events, merely ; to view it as a student of mili- 
tary science, is to miss its true historical content. Be- 
cause teachers of history and writers of text-books have 
persisted in trying to treat battles and campaigns as illus- 
trations of military science, or have viewed them as mere 
external happenings isolated from the real life of the 
people, came the reaction against the study of battles. 
It is believed, however, that the method of interpretation 
suggested, and applied to the battle of Lexiogton, will 
go far towards giving military events their legitimate 
rank among historical data; but, in general, this view of 
their content will not permit them to hold their former 
rank. 

The illustration given does not go far into details — 
only states the problem and points out the general plan of 
its solution. From the enumeration of only a few facts 
about the battle of Lexington the inference should not be 
drawn that none of the accidental features of a battle are 
to be studied. The battle, like any other external event, is 
a means and not an end; it was a means and not an end to 
the people who participated in it. It must follow that 
only such features of the battle or campaign are to be 
studied as will contribute to the end in view. No more 
definite law than this can be stated, because the accidental 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 125 

features of a battle, the particular officers in command, 
the numbers on each side, the number killed and wounded, 
movements, condition of each army as to supplies and 
other munitions of war, and like points, bear no fixed 
ratio to the effect on public opinion. In a given battle or 
campaign, one set of features may account for a change 
in public opinion, while in another battle a different set 
of facts may have to be appealed to. Again, military 
events of similar proportions do not bring about corre- 
sponding changes in the ideas and attitudes of the people. 
The disparity in the results of battles may be illustrated 
by the skirmish of Lexington and the storming of Stony 
Point. To the student of military science, the latter has 
many points of interest, while the former has little to 
commend it to him. To the student of the institutional 
life of the people, the affair at Lexington is full of interest, 
while the attack on Stony Point has little value to him as 
a means of tracing the growth of ideas in the Revolution. 
It is true that this daring event has many unique and 
thrilling features about it, but their value ends in them- 
selves, for they do not lead the student into the current 
of human passion. This illustrates the statement that 
there is no fixed relation, nor one permitting formulation, 
existing between a battle and the movement of public 
sentiment. The reaction in popular feeling caused by the 
actions at Trenton and Princeton was greater, in propor- 
tion to their size, than the depression produced by the 
series of disasters begun by the great defeat on Long 
Island and closed by the flight across the Jerseys. The 



126 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

best that can be done, therefore, is for the teacher to keep 
before the student the problem to be solved, and, if neces- 
sary, to direct him in the preparation of his work, so that 
emphasis will be given to those features that throw most 
light on the problem. 1 

If the content of public sentiment in the form of union 
for the Eights of Man is searched for in all the military 
events of the time, the mind will group these facts into 
a series, on the basis of a common historical content ; they 
thus become as much a part of the Revolution as any other 
event of that time. It must appear also, from the above 
discussion, that those military events contributing most to 
the end struggled for are the ones having the richest his- 
torical content, and must take highest rank in the series. 
If this standard of determining the relative value of events 
be applied to all the battles and campaigns of the war, the 
result will give about three grades of events: a very few 
campaigns to be studied in detail ; a much larger number 
of battles whose significance can be obtained in a single 
reading; and a still larger number, including mere local 
skirmishes, whose content is so vague that they should 
not be studied at all. 

During this second phase of the struggle against England 
we have seen that another series of events, more purely 
political in character, were taking place j they included 
the ordinary work of the Continental Congress, the Declar- 

1 It may not be amiss for the student in his reading to touch on the 
details of events which have no bearing on the problem in hand, but 
the teacher should not waste time in emphasizing them in recitation. 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 127 

ation of Independence, the formation of state constitu- 
tions, foreign relations, the attempt to establish a general 
government on the basis of the Articles of Confederation, 
and other events of a like nature. These are to be inter- 
preted and integrated by the same organizing idea that 
answered for the military events — union for the Eights 
of Man. The Declaration of Independence, as a document, 
gives the best formal expression of these rights. It em- 
bodies the ideas on which the struggle was to be waged, 
and on which it was to be justified to the Americans 
themselves and to the rest of mankind. The act of Dec- 
laration is evidence that new ideas had taken the place of 
the old basis of union. The enthusiasm with which it 
was received by the army and by the people attests the 
fact that union on the new basis was an accomplished 
fact ; it also measures to the student the strength of the 
revulsion in feeling that had taken place between April, 
1775, and July, 1776. From this time on the attainment 
of the Hights of Man becomes the conscious aim of the 
Americans. It is held by some that the dominant idea of 
any time is not always consciously present to the people 
of that time. This is not true of the people in the 
Revolutionary period. They had not only given up the 
hope of English rights, but had substituted a new ambition, 
and one full of inspiration. This is the ideal that ani- 
mated their every act from the smallest to the greatest ; 
it was a consuming passion with them. It seems to follow, 
then, that the student ought to put into the means used 
the same meaning which the people did themselves ; but 



128 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

this interpretation cannot be made unless the doctrines of 
the great Declaration are studied, here and now, in the 
very place this event occupies in the series of which 
it is a part. In the ordinary text-book, Richard Henry 
Lee's resolution holds a more prominent place than 
any part of the Declaration. This has given the im- 
pression that the former is of more importance than the 
latter. Few, suggest any study of the Declaration. In 
trying to emphasize the need of studying the Declara- 
tion of Independence in this place, I do not mean to 
insist on giving more attention to the accidental features 
of this event, — the hall in which it was made, the hand- 
writing of the document, the names of the committee that 
prepared and reported it, and other like points, — but rather 
that the student ought to be required to make a careful 
analysis of the political principles x found therein, so that 
the "rights of man" may mean something definite to him. 
The accidental features should not be ignored ; but the 
teacher of history must constantly bear in mind the fact 
that the student may know all there is to be known of 
such features and still not know the real Declaration of 
Independence. There are two reasons for this study : it 
casts a new and fuller light on the events preceding the 
Declaration, — these events really caused it, — and their true 
and full meaning is not known till the things that were 
caused are understood; again, the events, both political 
and military, that followed the Declaration, are to be seen 

1 The portion of the Declaration preceding the enumeration of 
grievances is the part to be studied most at this point. 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 129 

as means in the process by which it became possible for 
the ideas of the Declaration to become the foundation of 
our institutions. Thus, illuminated by the same great idea, 
the events between 1775 and 1783 become the members of 
a connected historical series. 

It must follow without much question that the Declara- 
tion is by far the most important event in this part of the 
Revolution, and must, therefore, be given a large share of 
time. In truth, the idea of independence begins to push 
to the front with the battle of Lexington, and goes on 
throughout the entire series. The formation of the state 
constitutions will show how rapidly men's minds grew 
toward the ideas of the Declaration. In all the new 
constitutions these ideas are implied, and in a majority 
of them are formally expressed in shape of Bills of Eights. 
Wherever we turn, therefore, we meet with the new ideas. 

Union between the States and the General 
Government. 

The Organizing Idea of the Second Half of the Revo- 
lution. — The period of the Revolution is a period by 
virtue of the growth of the idea of union which permeated 
every act and fact of that age. We have already marked 
two great differentiating forms in the process of union ; 
union against England, which constitutes the first half of 
the period, and union respecting the relation between 
the states and the general government, which constitutes 
the last half of the period. These two coordinate parts 



130 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

are not cross-sections in the stream of Eevolutionary 
thought and feeling, but are parts found running parallel 
through a portion of the period. 

In the very beginnings of the Revolution the colonies 
were brought into new relations with each other. To 
promote and bring to a successful issue the combination 
against England required not only new and strange rela- 
tions between the thirteen political units, but that these 
relations be made definite in order to promote harmonious 
and efficient action. No sooner had the Continental Con- 
gress convened than it had to determine the number of 
votes a colony should cast and the number of votes neces- 
sary to bind all the colonies. When the war opened, still 
other questions pertaining to intercolonial relations pressed 
upon congress, such as the number of troops, the amount 
of supplies, and the amount of money to be raised. How 
far shall the authority of the congress extend, and when 
shall the authority and machinery of the state government 
come into play? What regulations shall be placed on 
interstate commerce, and who shall place and execute such 
regulations ? These questions and many other kindred 
ones arose out of the pressure of war. The Declaration 
of Independence also aided in forcing the question of 
domestic union upon the attention of the people. In fact, 
the committees to draw up the Articles of Confederation 
and the Declaration were at work at the same time, and 
the former made its report only a few days after the latter's 
work was done. As the war neared its close and the bur- 
dens of the struggle grew heavier and heavier, the question 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 131 

of the proper relations between the states and the general 
government began to assume still more prominence. The 
efforts to pay the army, to make satisfactory commercial 
treaties with foreign nations, the disturbances over inter- 
state trade, and the injury to American manufactures at 
the close of the war by the inflow of cheap British pro- 
ducts, all kept the minds of the people constantly agitated 
as to the proper distribution of sovereignty between the 
states and the general government. The same problem 
confronted the Maryland and Virginia commissioners in 
1785, and that still greater body of men who .met at An- 
napolis in 1786 and called for a national convention. 
And what was the greatest problem before the convention 
of 1787, and also before the ratifying state conventions? 
Was it not the proper adjustment of the relations between 
the states and the nation ? 

The movement of public thought and feeling towards 
agreement on some principle of cooperation between the 
states and the general government is the organizing idea 
of the second half of the Eevolution. It is the discovery 
of this idea as the common content of the events of this 
time that makes them into an intelligible series — makes 
them more than a mere time-and-place series. This can- 
not be done without a thoughtful effort ; a mere reading 
over of the events and facts so as to picture them dimly 
in imagination or to hold them vaguely in memory will 
not suffice. It is not intended to suggest that memory 
and imagination have no part in this process of interpre- 
tation, for, in fact, they play a most important part. The 



132 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

aim is to guard against the common error of believing 
that these processes reach the end in historical study. 
Even if the processes of imagination and memory were 
perfect, the student may not have found the connection 
between the events studied and the general principles 
of which they are the manifestation and which control 
them as the law of their being. The teacher must there- 
fore see to it that the student discovers this movement 
as cause or as effect, or both, in the io dividual facts of 
that time, and that he distributes his time and energy 
among these events in proportion as they contributed to 
this great movement. Some gave little, some gave much, 
and they are to be judged accordingly. 

Union on Basis of Sovereignty of the State. — Just as 
we have found public sentiment separating the question of 
the relation of the states to the general government on 
domestic questions from their relation to it on foreign 
questions, so it began soon to take different views of the 
kind of relation that should subsist between these two 
forms of government. The Declaration of Independence 
expressly asserted the sovereignty of the people of the thir- 
teen colonies as a whole with reference to England, and by 
implication with reference to the rest of the world. Public 
sentiment was not divided by state lines on the question 
of independence ; but when the Articles of Confederation 
brought to the front questions involving the relations of 
the states to the general government on subjects that did 
not primarily touch the conflict with England, it was found 
in congress and among the people that no such unanimity 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 133 

of sentiment prevailed as to the principle on which the 
relation should be permanently established. This differ- 
ence caused the congress to delay over a year before 
adopting the Articles. It was found impossible to carry 
the principle of national sovereignty, which controlled, in 
the main, foreign affairs, into the domain of domestic 
questions ; and the more public sentiment was sounded, 
the more it became evident that the states must be more 
or less sovereign in home affairs. From 1775 to 1785 the 
sovereignty of the state on internal questions was gener- 
ally agreed upon, and for a part of the time was the legal 
principle of connection that regulated state and general 
governments in their internal dealing. This is the first 
phase of domestic union — the first part of the second half 
of the Revolution. The Articles of Confederation embody 
the progress made. 

The growth of domestic union did not keep pace with 
union against England. In the first place, the colonies had 
been undergoing, for a generation or more before the Revo- 
lution, a change of feeling toward the mother country. 
This we saw in the study of each group of colonies. Be- 
sides, the first phase of union against England had to 
prove itself a failure as a means of obtaining a redress of 
grievances before the people could see the necessity of a 
permanent union based upon purely American interests. 
Of course no such union could arise so long as they were 
struggling for the Rights of Englishmen. The habit of 
cooperating against England was fifteen years old before 
the germs of permanent domestic union began to grow. 



134 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Again, from 1775 to 1783 the interest in the questions of 
domestic confederation were entirely secondary, as we 
have seen, and in many cases arose out of conditions 
which were likely to disappear with the return of peace. 
Perhaps many of these causes would not have retarded 
a vigorous growth of internal union after it had once 
taken root, but certainly two causes did so operate. One 
was the people's inbred jealousy of any authority that 
seemed to -have even the appearance of centralization. 
This was not an unnatural fear, for they had no other 
experience and no other example than that offered by 
England. The other lies in the fact of the peculiar envi- 
ronment of the colonial era out of which the colonies were 
trying to emerge. The people were attached to their local 
institutions, and scarcely a man in 1783 loved America 
more than his colony or state. It was a most difficult 
problem to lead the people to repose a portion of their 
confidence and affection in a new system of government. 
For these reasons the Articles of Confederation could not 
and did not embody as high a degree of domestic union as 
did the Declaration of union against England. Theoreti- 
cally and practically the states held more sovereignty than 
the nation so far as internal questions were concerned. 

The sovereignty of the state is the dominant idea of this 
sub-period and gives historical continuity to its events and 
performs for the teacher the pedagogical functions of organ- 
ization. This idea furnishes the main content for all the 
events of importance touching the relations between the 
states and the general government. It is the great idea 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 135 

that controlled this class of events during that time ; they 
came in obedience to it ; and in turn reacted on public sen- 
timent so as to modify this law of their being. The 
sovereignty of the state is the fundamental doctrine of 
the Articles of Confederation, and interprets them and the 
acts done under them. Whatever can be pointed out as 
defects in the Articles, and as failures in the administra- 
tion under them, are to be interpreted by this principle 
and its corresponding sentiment. In fact all the defects 
in this instrument are there because this fundamental 
defect is there. They can all be reduced to it. Not only 
is this principle the interpreting idea for the defects of 
the Confederation, but for such facts as the discontent in 
the army near the close of the war, the lack of confidence 
on the part of some foreign nations, and the insolence of 
others, the financial and industrial depression, Shays' 
rebellion, and many others, are to be traced to this same 
principle as their sufficient cause and historical content. 
This process of interpretation results in giving to the 
student a series of unified facts. Not only will these 
facts stand in his mind as having a common content, but 
he will readily see that some of them contain more of this 
content than others. Thus this study enables him to give 
to each of these facts its true rank in the series. The 
knowledge of this by the teacher before the student begins 
the series will be of great service in guiding the work so 
as to secure economy of time and energy. 

Union on Basis of Sovereignty of the Nation. — No 
doubt the careful student has observed, in the series of 



136 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

events just studied, this difference: that although state 
sovereignty is the main content of these events so far as 
their cause is concerned, yet their effects often tended to 
draw the people away from this principle as the basis of 
government. This is particularly true of the events be- 
tween the closing years of the war and 1786. We may say, 
then, that the student, observing one of these events, looks 
through it in two directions, — back toward state sov- 
ereignty as its remote or immediate cause, and forward 
toward national sovereignty as the effect it had on public 
sentiment. It is true that even the effects of these events 
are the negation of state sovereignty, and are, therefore, 
legitimately interpreted by it until the growth of public 
sentiment takes on a positive form and moves consciously 
toward the sovereignty of the nation. The genesis of a 
new idea is often found in the negation of some idea that 
is worn out or fails to meet the requirements of the 
changed circumstances arising out of new conditions. The 
old idea, on account of its inadequacy, causes a reaction 
in public sentiment against itself till this sentiment moves 
off in the direction of the new and opposing idea. This is 
just what took place in the transition from state sovereignty 
to national sovereignty, as the basis of union. The 
movement toward nationality was well under way by 1785 
and 1786, and the current was neither turned aside nor 
broken after this point "had been reached. The growing 
sentiment was becoming more conscious of the movement — 
not only of going away from the principle of the Confed- 
eration, but of moving toward a new goal. The struggle for 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 137 

its formal attainment goes on with increasing force through 
the convention of 1787 and the ratifying conventions of 
the states in 1787 and 1788. 

The Process and Material of Organization. — The sug- 
gestion has already been made that in the first phase of 
domestic union many of the facts pointed to a new form of 
union, and must be so interpreted. We do not violate, but 
obey, a law of historical growth when we connect with 
the new growth some of the events that were found to be 
members of a different series on the basis of a different 
idea. When the student is interpreting events in the light 
of the idea of state sovereignty, the teacher should lead him 
to discover the tendency of the new movement as it now 
and then appears in the midst of other effects. This is ne- 
cessary in order to compass the full significance, not only of 
the facts, but of the principle itself. What an idea like 
state sovereignty is potentially can only be discovered by 
watching it transform itself through external facts into 
reality, even if a part of this reality is the negation of the 
principle itself. If this method of interpretation is ob- 
served in transitional periods, or when two lines of thought 
run parallel and mutually influence each other, as soon as 
the new idea becomes the dominant one, the student already 
finds himself in partial possession of its beginnings. It is 
well at this stage to run back over such events with atten- 
tion resting solely on their significance with reference to 
the new idea. It may aid somewhat if we now gather up 
some of these facts which the idea of national sovereignty 
either partly or completely interprets. 



138 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

As far back as 1776 the idea of a national government 
was suggested by Thomas Paine, and also by Eutledge 
of South. Carolina. But the first years of the war so 
unified public sentiment and effort that the defects of the 
form of government did not appear in their completeness 
till near its close. In 1780 the idea met with frequent 
individual and public expression ; the Boston convention of 
New England delegates, and, later in the year, the Hartford 
meeting of New England and New York delegates, called 
for a new government and sent a circular letter to the states 
and to Washington. In the same year Hamilton wrote his 
famous Duane letter ; in 1781, a series of papers called the 
Continentalist, a name suggestive of nationality ; also a plan 
for a national bank. Paine renewed his old suggestion. 
In the next year Washington took a hand in the agitation, 
and wrote to many prominent men urging the need of a 
new constitution. Twice during this year congress called 
for larger powers from the states, and a pamphlet argued 
for a congress to frame a new government; in 1783, the 
New York legislature was moved to ask congress to call a 
convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. At this 
time it became fashionable in the army and in the taverns 
and coffee-houses to drink the toasts : " A hoop to the barrel," 
and "Cement to the Union." The formation of the Society 
of the Cincinnati, the agitation over the cession of western 
lands, and the proposal of an impost by congress also aided 
in molding public sentiment. This agitation extended over 
the next year, and to it may be added the influence exerted 
by Noah Webster's essays in favor of stronger government. 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 139 

By the time 1785 is reached, we may say that the current 
was setting strongly toward nationality. The business men 
of New York city called for adequate powers for congress ; 
the merchants and mechanics of Boston addressed congress 
and the state legislatures to urge that the former be given 
power over commerce ; the merchants also opened corres- 
pondence with other commercial centers to enlist them in 
the cause. Governor Bowdoin addressed the General 
Court on the question and suggested a convention of the 
states to consider the subject. The General Court re- 
solved in favor of such a convention and instructed the 
governor to communicate with other executives, and 
directed their delegates in congress to move in the matter. 
In this same year the people of Pennsylvania, through a 
popular convention, demanded more power for the general 
government, and later in the year the governor and 
council called for a new constitution. Early in this year 
of healthy agitation the commissioners from Maryland and 
Virginia met at Alexandria, and, with the advice of Wash- 
ington, agreed to uniform rules for their trade — a work 
which suggested the desirability and the necessity of a 
wider application of common commercial regulations. 

In 1786 came the Annapolis convention with wider rep- 
resentation and with aims still more national than the 
Alexandria meeting. Hamilton wrote the convention's 
report, calling for a national convention to revise the 
Articles of Confederation ; this was widely circulated 
and commanded the attention of thoughtful men in all 
parts of the country. In the winter of 1786 and 1787 



140 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

New England was shaken to its center, and the rest of 
the states startled, by the insurrection of Shays ; this 
made men and states willing to go to a national conven- 
tion who otherwise would not have gone. The mut- 
terings of discontent were coming over the mountains 
from Kentucky and Tennessee ; already the Spaniards 
had seized goods of westerners on the lower Mississippi, 
and General Clarke at Vincennes had retaliated a'nd was 
thought to -be preparing to attack the Spaniards. These 
events were rapidly consolidating public opinion in favor 
of the great convention that was to meet at Philadelphia, 
and no doubt forced Washington to reconsider his refusal 
to be a delegate. The state conventions to ratify the 
constitution, and the events that were preparatory to 
them, constitute the last series in the great movement 
towards national sovereignty as the basis of union. They 
are also the last acts in the drama of the American 
Eevolution. With their consummation, the form of a 
nation comes into being. 

The Limit to the Process of Organizing a Period.— 
With the close of the period under discussion, the more 
formal treatment of historical organization ceases ; there- 
fore the question of the limit of this process as applied 
to periods may be properly raised at this point. While 
no limit to this process has been assigned in preced- 
ing discussions, it is really inferred from the nature 
of the process itself that it must of necessity come to 
an end when a content has been found so specific and 
particularizing as to belong to one event only. With 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 141 

this content alone in consciousness, the event or other 
fact stands in mental isolation, or as nearly so as can be. 
This must be, for we have seen over and over that 
resemblance in content is the only basis of organization. 
Without it there is no integration, and likewise no 
coordination and no subordination ; for there exists no 
common standard for testing the relative value of events, 
therefore no ranking can occur. This sort of content 
has little value except to give concrete and individual- 
ized details. It must not be inferred, however, that 
concrete details have no organizing power. Whether 
or not they have depends upon the power of teacher 
and student to trace general principles or phases of 
institutional growth into concrete details. Nothing can 
be more concrete and individualized than the ideas of 
some one particular man, as Roger Sherman in the conven- 
tion of 1787. And yet this concrete and individualized 
embodiment may, at the same time, be the sentiment of 
a majority of the country ; it is none the less concrete 
because found elsewhere, and not the less universal because 
found in the heart and mind of a given man. The iso- 
lated concrete fact, while not more concrete than the 
example just given, has less historical value, because it 
cannot aid in the interpretation of other concrete facts 
like itself. When, therefore, the interpretation of an 
event proceeds until isolated content is all that is 
obtained, the process ought to cease. 

But between this extreme limit and what has been 
done with this period in passing from the most general 



142 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

idea of union down to the four coordinate and more con- 
crete forms of union, there may be found several other 
shades of thought and feeling in each of these forms. 
For instance, this can be done easily for the first form 
of union extending from 1761 to 1775. No doubt union 
to secure the Bights of Englishmen was differentiated 
by public opinion into the various elements that entered 
into the people's conception of English rights, such as 
trial by jury, right of internal taxation, and finally the 
right to resist even external taxation under the guise 
of the tax on tea. Each of these ideas may be found 
as the content of a smaller series of events than the 
series unified by the Bights of Englishmen. In a simi- 
lar way it is quite possible to discover phases of thought 
and feeling in the growth of union on the basis of 
Bights of Man, the sovereignty of the state, and the 
sovereignty of the nation. These more specific and 
possible forms of thought and feeling will not be 
discussed at length for the reason that it is the aim to 
illustrate the nature and principles of the process of 
organization rather than to deal with historical material 
as such. It is believed that the organization of the 
period of the Revolution has been carried far enough to 
enable the teacher and student to push the process into 
the more specific phases already indicated., 

The Result. — If the teacher has guided the student 
through the period by the light of the principles of organi- 
zation, the result, on the side of knowledge, should stand 
as follows : 1. The facts and events of the Revolution 



THE GROWTH OF UNION. 143 

stand in his mind united into a series by the presence 
of a common idea — the growth of union; some facts 
stand out with great fulness, while others fade out of 
importance till they have hardly a rank or place in 
the series. 2. His view of the ideas and events of 
this period as a whole gives two parts, two great 
series, each with its members joined and ranked by 
phases of the growth of union. In the first of these 
two series, the animating idea is union against England, 
and in the second, it is union on domestic questions. 
3. A closer inspection will show that the student has 
broken each of these phases of union into two parts and 
reorganized each part into a new series on a new basis ; 
union against England and its events are separated into 
two parts : union for the Eights of Englishmen, and 
union for the Eights of Man ; union on domestic ques- 
tions and the events attending it are separated into union 
on basis of state sovereignty, and union on the basis of 
national sovereignty. Thus the period stands in the 
student's mind an orderly arrangement of ideas of va^ing 
degrees of generality. Each fact stands illuminated by 
a series of ideas rising from the lowest to the highest. 
Each fact has a lowest idea that isolates it from all 
others, and a higher idea that gives it fellowship with 
a series of like content, and so on upward through chang- 
ing degrees of generality until the highest idea is reached, 
an idea that binds it to all the facts of the period. 

Perhaps a concrete illustration of the idea of gradations 
of generality in the content of historical material may 



144 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

serve to make it clearer. The Declaration of Eights, 
the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confed- 
eration, and the Constitution are four great cardinal 
facts in this period. Each of these contains a phase of 
thought that not only separates it from the others, but 
a phase so specialized as to take it out of any series to 
which other more general ideas may have assigned it. 
But as soon as we put into the Declaration of Eights 
the idea of union for the Eights of Englishmen, it imme- 
diately coalesces with a wide range of events — those 
from 1761 to 1775 — having the same content. The 
same is true of the Declaration of Independence, the 
Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. If we 
think of the Declaration of Independence as expressing 
the idea of union against England, it and the other mem- 
bers of its series — most of the events between 1775 and 
1783 — immediately join hands with the Declaration of 
Eights and its series of facts, the two series thus form- 
ing one. We may find in the Articles of Confederation 
the idea of domestic union, and if we do so it and the 
facts of our history immediately associated with it 
combine with the Constitution and its associated events 
so as to form a greater series. If we look upon the 
Constitution as marking the progress of the idea of union 
in general, it not only joins hands with the Articles of 
Confederation and the two great Declarations, but also 
with all the main facts of the American Eevolution. 



PERIOD OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 



The Period as a Whole. 

General Nature of the Period. — The student will find 
greater difficulty in discovering the dominant idea of this 
period than in the case of the Revolution. The movements 
in the preceding period were rapid ; thought and passion 
centered around a few definite propositions and moved 
with such rapidity that extraneous matters were pushed 
aside. The struggle, in its externals, was dramatic and 
absorbing, as is usually the case with revolutions. Because 
of this very intensity, the period was a short one, if meas- 
ured in the number of its years. 

The movement of ideas in the new period is, for the 
most part, much slower, the exception being in its latter 
portion. Besides their more evolutionary growth, ideas 
and institutions are constantly becoming more complex, 
and therefore distracting elements more frequently obtrude 
themselves. Again, the period chronologically covers 
nearly three times as much ground as the Revolution. 
The student ought to be, as a result of previous experience 
with such problems, far better prepared to cope with the 
difficulties of the new period. 



146 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

The Revolution had developed the form of a nation, and 
expressed the result in the Constitution. In the begin- 
ning, the forms set up by this instrument did not have 
a perfected national spirit to animate them. The struggle 
with England had produced a good degree of national 
sentiment on foreign questions, and the campaign for 
the sovereignty of the nation as a basis of union had 
done much toward making us a nation on purely domes- 
tic interests. The growth of national sentiment, with 
reference to foreign questions, had been more rapid and 
substantial than on domestic matters. The Declaration 
of Independence, relating primarily to foreign affairs, 
was more nationalistic in its tone and propositions than 
the Articles of Confederation which were concerned pri- 
marily with domestic questions ; and the Articles them- 
selves conferred more powers on congress in regard to 
foreign, than to home, relations. While the united 
strength of these two phases of sentiment did not really 
make the thirteen states a nation, yet the germs of one 
had begun to take root. 

The long struggle in the constitutional convention and 
the longer and severer battle for ratification in the states, 
accompanied by anger, jealousy, suspicion, charges of 
bad motives, and threats of alliances, go to show that the 
preliminary victory for nationality was won with difficulty. 
It may aid us to judge the true strength of the new move- 
ment if we recall that the Constitution would probably have 
been defeated had the congress of the Confederation thrown 
its influence in the scale against it, had Washington re- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 147 

fused his support, or had it been sent to the people for 
ratification by direct vote. But even as it was, the feeling 
for stronger government was not general enough to get the 
Constitution through the great states of Massachusetts, 
New York, and Virginia, without a definite understanding 
that it was to be amended quite freely. Again we see that 
the spirit of nationality had not come into full being, but 
was beginning to germinate. This spirit requires that the 
people's thought break over the narrow limits of state 
lines and contemplate the broader and deeper questions 
that arise out of the life of the whole. This broadening of 
thought does not belong to political problems alone, but to 
all forms of institutional life. Questions of government, 
religion, education, and industry must lay hold of the 
minds and hearts of the whole people. The spirit of 
nationality does not require the people to be a unit on all 
the details of organization and the means of accomplish- 
ing specific ends, but it does require them to transfer a 
portion of their admiration and affection 'from the state and 
locality to the nation ; that they love the good of the whole 
more than the narrower interests of the locality, or rather, 
that they see the highest interests of the state and neighbor- 
hood in the highest good of the whole. Nationality is not 
only a sentiment which thrills the multitude on great occa- 
sions, but it is a principle of action for the statesman. It 
is that principle which declares that national functions 
shall be exercised for the good of the whole, and looks 
upon the nation as the most appropriate and efficient 
agent in the performance of such functions. The senti- 



148 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

ment and principle are interactive ; each is the cause and 
the effect of the other ; they rise and fall together. For 
their perfect manifestation they require an organism of 
thought and feeling so sensitive and sympathetic that the 
response of all the parts is quick and perfect when any por- 
tion of the organism is affected. 

It fell to our history between 1789 and 1870 to produce 
this result. It was in this time that the germs of national 
life, which originated mainly in the last phase of the 
Revolution, were so developed as to constitute a new era in 
our institutional evolution. So wide is its sweep and deep 
its current that the stream of nationality is the greatest, 
the most fundamental, movement that took place between 
these two dates. It is the presence of this overwhelming 
principle and sentiment that constitutes this a period in 
American history. There were other mighty agencies at 
work during this time ; some were in harmony with nation- 
ality, and others were in deadly conflict with it ; yet they 
were all either absorbed or destroyed by this dominant 
one. 

The Phases of the Period. — If the above propositions 
are true, it follows that the growth of the spirit of nation- 
ality is the organizing idea for the period, and that its 
phases will furnish the organizing principle for the sub- 
periods. These are as follows : 

Relations between Nationality and Democracy, 1789-1840. 

1. A Period of Conflict, 1789-1803. 

2. The Mutual Approach of Nationality and Democracy, 

1800-1820. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 149 

3. Fusion of Nationality and Democracy Working out 
its Results, 1816-1840. 

Relations between Nationality and Slavery, 1820-1870. 

1. Slavery Gradually Grows Hostile to Nationality, 1820- 

1840. 

2. Sectionalization of Interests and Sentiments, 1835- 

1860. 

3. Death of Slavery and Triumph of Nationality, 1860- 

1870. 



RELATIONS BETWEEN NATIONALITY AND DEMOCRACY. 

A Period of Conflict, 1789-1803. 

The Germs of the Conflict. — At the opening of this 
period only the professional classes, the well-to-do, and the 
well-educated, were imbued with the spirit of nationality ; 
and even these were not all thoroughly devoted to this idea, 
and furnished many examples of opposition. The mass of 
the common people were certainly more given to local 
interests and more controlled by state pride than by 
national sentiment. Of course many of this class had 
been influenced by the preceding campaign, and were in 
a position to be converted to nationality.* But most of 
them were inclined to look with suspicion upon, and there- 
fore resent, any attempt to do through national instrumen- 
talities what had heretofore been accomplished by local 
agencies. At the same time, it was a deep conviction of 



150 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

the great leaders of the " well-born " classes that the 
country's only hope lay in extending its sphere of national 
activity. 

Under the above conditions, a struggle between nation- 
ality and democracy x was almost inevitable. This con- 
scious conflict is one of the differentiating marks of the first 
phase of nationality. No doubt, as we shall see, many 
events took place which caused nationality to make, un- 
consciously, very steady gains. There are always these 
two forms of growth, the conscious and the unconscious, 
and in no other period was the prominent movement more 
promoted by events which produced non-purposed results 
and unintended effects. 

Unconscious Progress of National Sentiment. — In the 
opening events of this period we witness no conflict 
between democracy and nationality, but nevertheless 
we must discover how events contributed to the general 
movement. The election of representatives, senators, and 
the electoral college formally opened the new era. As the 
student looks into these events, he will discover that in 
form and purpose they are new, and without difficulty will 
find their cause in the provisions of the new Constitution. 2 
Probably the great variety in election methods will attract 

1 The term " democracy," when used to designate a political party, 
will be capitalized, but not when designating the mass of plain people, 
their ideas and sentiments. 

2 Just here the student must go to the Constitution and read its provi- 
sions concerning these processes. This is not only desirable as a means 
to a proper understanding of the events, but it is the best way to study 
so-called " Civil Government." 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 151 

his attention. He should see that while electors were 
mostly chosen by state legislatures, in Virginia and Mary- 
land they were elected by a direct popular vote, and in Mas- 
sachusetts by a mixed method — two electors being chosen 
by the people, and the rest by the legislature from twenty- 
four names presented by congressional districts. In New 
York no electors were chosen because the upper house de- 
manded a concurrent vote, while the lower house held out 
for a joint one. The houses also quarreled in New Hamp- 
shire over the method of election. The lack of uniformity 
was exhibited in congressional elections. In New Jersey 
one portion of the state kept open the polls for three weeks 
and only closed them on proclamation from the governor. 
Connecticut voted twice, first for three men, and after- 
wards to elect one of the three as a representative. In 
Massachusetts some of the districts voted twice before 
members could be elected. What is the historical signifi- 
cance of these conflicting and contrasting methods ? This 
can be seen by comparing them with the uniformity which 
prevails to-day, The difference between then and now 
reveals the distance in idea between the two periods, and 
how much nationalization has had to do in order to work 
out methods of election common to all portions of the 
nation, and cooperative to national ends. These election 
processes, however different in different places, were for 
common national ends. The people of the whole country 
were made to engage in the same acts at the same time 
and for like purposes. The repetition of this series of 
events and of the incidents connected therewith greatly 



152 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

promoted the consideration of matters of common concern, 
and to this extent broadened^ the ideas and sympathies of 
the people — drawing them away from the narrower and 
opposing interests of the community and the state. This, 
on the whole, has been the tendency and the result of all 
national elections. 

Akin to this was the effect of Washington's journey from 
Mt. Vernon to New York to be inaugurated. It was a 
continuous triumph ; in one place there were feasts and 
toasts, in another escorts and processions, and in a third a 
combination of these. Decorations of cedar and laurel, 
flags and liberty caps, triumphal arches and evergreen 
crowns, bonfires and signal lights, firing salutes and ring- 
ing bells, patriotic songs and appropriate mottoes signified 
the people's affection for the national hero. The inaugural 
ceremonies exhibited similar enthusiasm on the part of 
those present. The people who read and heard of these 
interesting events were also thrilled with hope and pride 
over the auspicious beginnings of the national government. 
This effect upon the feelings of the people was, perhaps, 
the most important contribution made by these events to 
the history of the country. 

The Struggle Originates over Domestic Questions. — The 
stimulus given to national sentiment by the above events 
was largely, if not entirely, unconscious. The people did 
not plan to develop national affection, and hardly had their 
attention called to this result ; but nevertheless, such was 
the result. The fact that the growth was unconscious 
proves nothing against the strength of the sentiment, for 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 153 

unconscious growth is often the most natural, and hence 
the most substantial and permanent. We now come to 
consider a conscious movement. In this, some of the 
people formed definite purposes and called into being 
appropriate agencies for their realization, while others 
were just as definitely determined to oppose and circum- 
vent these ends. The contest over the leading measures 
and events of Washington's and Adams' administrations 
may be denominated a contest between nationality and 
democracy. This is a correct statement of the nature of 
the first phase of development in the period of nation- 
ality. Two general considerations prove it : the nature 
of the ideas in conflict, and the contrasts between the 
people who gathered around these ideas. In the first 
case we find measures and means taken for the primary 
purpose of calling into vigorous life national agents and 
functions. This policy was defended under the principle 
of liberal construction of the Constitution. All this was 
strongly combated by the idea of local self-government — 
the basal idea of primitive democracy. As a feeling, the 
fear was that the position of the states and the interests of 
sections might become subordinated to those of the nation. 
The defence of this position was sought in the principle of 
strict construction of the Constitution, which was often in- 
terpretated to mean state sovereignty. In the second place, 
the people composing the opposition belonged to what is 
often called the democracy, — the people in the humbler 
walks of life who, by experience, are strongly attached 
to localities. The people supporting the measures of 



154 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

national import included the majority of the well-to-do 
and the educated classes. From interest, education, and 
experience, this portion of the people was better fitted to 
take broad views of governmental questions than their 
opponents. 

In this contest the presence of two classes of events will 
be observed, — those relating to domestic affairs and those 
concerning foreign relations. The work and measures of 
Hamilton may be properly regarded as precipitating the 
conflict of ideas alluded to above. These were a tariff and 
excise, the funding and assumption bills, and a United 
States bank and mint. An examination of the contro- 
versy over the tariff will reveal that its immediate pur- 
pose was to obtain revenue sufficient to meet the pressing 
needs of the government, and that another purpose was 
hardly secondary to this : to " give a just and decided 
preference to our labors." Over the first object but little 
dispute occurred, its aim being so clearly just and neces- 
sary ; but the question of protection aroused animated dis- 
cussion. The conduct of congress demonstrated the fact 
that a power had arisen capable, by its decisions, of doing 
great good to some national interests, and perhaps harm 
to others. The result was that as many interests as pos- 
sible tied themselves thus early to the nation and became, 
perforce, the supporters of the administration and the 
nationalistic view of the functions of government. The 
opposition to the tariff was not so much against the 
principle as because of certain interests which would be 
affected unfavorably. Whatever may be thought about 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 155 

the policy of discriminating between foreign and domestic 
goods, and whatever may have been the arguments pro and 
con used at this time or at any other time, two things must 
be clearly in mind in order to reach a correct appreciation 
of the historical meaning of the tariff. Certain industrial 
interests were linking themselves to the nation and were 
bidding for national favor, and both friend and foe to the 
tariff in these debates, in or out of congress, aided in for- 
cing upon the attention of the people questions of general 
as well as of local concern, and thus contributed to awaken 
a national consciousness. 

But the feeling over the tariff was tame as compared 
with the passion engendered by the funding and assump- 
tion bills. These measures were explained before congress 
early in 1790, and included plans for paying the foreign 
and domestic debts and also the state debts incurred during 
the War of the Revolution. The plans for the payment 
of the foreign debt met with little or no opposition. The 
foreign debt seemed one of honor and gratitude owed to 
friendly nations, but somehow the home debt was not quite 
in the same category. Many, in and out of congress, 
argued against paying the face value of the obligation to 
the present holders. Discussions on this point began to 
reveal two classes of persons, — moneyed men and specula- 
tors, and the original holders of the debt, many of whom 
were farmers and laborers and former soldiers. Their 
interests were supposed to clash, and some ground for this 
appeared in the fact that men of small means had been 
compelled to part with their certificates, and that even 



156 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

then speculators were scouring the country in search of 
continental promises still held by the people of the back 
districts. But in the interest of the nation's credit, con- 
gress voted the measure without any distinction between 
the original and the present holder of the certificate. 
Just as the vote on the foreign debt raised America in the 
eyes of foreign countries, so the success of this measure 
demonstrated the absolute fidelity of the nation to its 
home creditors, and immediately gave our own citizens 
concrete proof of the strength of the new government. 

The assumption of the state debts aroused the strongest 
opposition yet encountered. The public took an interest 
in the contest, the newspapers were often filled with com- 
munications on the subject, and even threats of disunion 
were made. Here was pressed the argument of strict 
construction as a means of opposition and of protection to 
the interests of localities. The debates went on with 
varying effects during the spring and summer of 1790, and 
the bill was finally passed by means of an agreement be- 
tween Hamilton and Jefferson that eastern votes should 
give the national capital to the South, and southern votes 
should carry the assumption of the state debts. Out of 
this conflict came two enduring results : 1. The location 
and establishment of the capital whose life and environ- 
ment testify to the aspiration of the people after a truly 
national existence, and where there is gathered the external 
evidence of a national organization. 2. The conscious- 
ness that the assumption bill was a purposed and extraor- 
dinary stretch of national authority. This result gave 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 157 

satisfaction to some and alarm to others. Virginia's legis- 
lature voted that assumption was " dangerous to the rights 
of the people." 

After assumption, the nation needed more revenue than 
the tariff supplied. Hamilton proposed an excise on dis- 
tilled liquors. It met opposition, but not on the ground 
of being unconstitutional, for the strict constructionist 
could find the very word " excise " in the Constitution. 
Nevertheless, the people who were coming to accept this 
view of the Constitution were the opponents of the new 
measure. The ground of opposition was fundamentally 
the same as that against assumption, — the desire to pre- 
vent the extension of national authority. They saw in 
this new law a very great increase in the number of gov- 
ernment officials who would go prying around the country 
and into the private business of many people. The bill 
passed in 1791, and in 1794 the opposition of people of 
western Pennsylvania, encouraged by sympathizers in 
other states, resisted the collection of the excise till the 
militia, summoned by national authority, suppressed the 
Whiskey Rebellion. While the national authority was 
thus vindicated by force of arms, the opposition began to 
consolidate itself more and more. 

The last of Hamilton's great financial plans was a United 
States bank. More than the other measures did this call 
into exercise the implied powers of the Constitution, and 
bind the business interests more firmly to the government. 
In that time, before the unwritten Constitution was thought 
of, it certainly was an unusual exercise of power to call a 



158 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

bank into existence to cany out the nation's right to raise 
revenue and pay the debts of the United States. The 
provisions of the law made the government a stockholder, 
and permitted it to borrow $100,000 from the bank. The 
bank was to have no national rival, and could greatly aid 
the government in making loans, and aid business by estab- 
lishing branches in leading business centers. The oppo- 
sition was intense. Even Madison began to use the principle 
of strict construction, and Jefferson exerted his influence 
to organize opposition and secure a veto of the bill. 

As the effects of these measures began to work out, and 
the immediate and remote purposes of their friends and 
opponents became clearer, the people began to divide 
among themselves and gather around leaders. "While 
conservatives, aristocrats, the commercial class, the timor- 
ous, and the friends of powerful rule thus gravitated toward 
Hamilton, . . . the liberty-loving, those jealous of class 
supremacy and court manners, they who detested money- 
changers and the new methods of growing rich, together 
with the floating remnants of the Anti-Federal and State 
Rights party, were irresistibly attracted toward Jefferson." 
This growing separation into parties is further made 
apparent by the establishment of partisan papers. Thus 
Hamilton's policy created a great contest between nation- 
ality and democracy. This is the all-inclusive result, 
and will translate and explain more events than any other 
movement of that time. 

The Progress of the Conflict over Foreign Relations. — 
The discussion which follows, like the one on domestic 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 159 

questions, does not purport to be a complete history of 
these events, and deals with only so much of incident and 
detail as is necessary to show the progress of this inter- 
esting struggle and the evolution of its resultant, — a rising 
nation. Before the conflict between nationality and democ- 
racy had fully developed, a new element injected itself 
into the controversy, — the war between France and Eng- 
land. This war grew out of the progress of the French 
Revolution. The American people were sympathetic spec- 
tators from the very beginning of this revolution, because 
France seemed to be following the example which she had 
or generously aided in establishing in America. At the 
fisst appearance of French extravagance those Americans 
who followed Hamilton and strong government began to 
lose sympathy with the Eevolution, and were ready when 
war came to sympathize with England. The more demo- 
cratic among our people were only made stronger friends of 
France by the fact of war against England and the rising 
opposition at home. Our treaty relations with France, 
the arrival of a French minister, and the growing differ- 
ences among Americans induced Washington and his 
cabinet to issue the famous Proclamation of Neutrality. 
This document in effect announced to the world our deter- 
mination to stand aloof from European complications, and 
was consequently the herald of a rising confidence in the 
ability of the new nation to maintain its place without the 
support of any European ally. It thus planted the germ 
of a permanent foreign policy which ultimately made us 
really an independent people. The Declaration of Inde- 



160 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

pendence was the expression of an intense desire for 
political separation from England. The war made this 
an objective fact. Bnt both could not destroy America's 
dependence upon Europe ; the colonial habit could not be 
thus easily eradicated. Looking backward, the proclama- 
tion was a new declaration of independence, while looking 
forward, it was a new prophecy of nationality. The imme- 
diate result, however, was to disappoint France and her 
friends and to please her enemies. The passing public 
sentiment was with France and against England, and the 
people joined with enthusiasm in the demonstrations con- 
nected with the reception of Genet, the French minister. 
The latter cultivated successfully the feeling against 
England and tried to turn the public against the proc- 
lamation and its enforcement, and finally against Wash- 
ington's administration. He failed, lost public esteem, 
and was superseded. A great deal of significance must 
attach to the fact that while the majority of the people 
took sides with France against England in a way to sug- 
gest little national self-respect, yet when called upon by 
the conduct of Genet to choose between Genet and France 
on the one hand, and Washington and America on the other, 
the decision was prompt and patriotic for that day. 1 The 
full significance of this reaction, as it expressed itself in the 
great cities in public demonstrations to uphold Washington 

1 Historians have often set forth these facts as proof of our depend- 
ence upon European standards as they are, but more often have they 
failed to give full significance to this reaction. The one interpre- 
tation discovers the past and the other the future in these events. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 161 

and neutrality, can be more fully appreciated when we re- 
member that support of France and opposition to England 
were now an article in the creed of the opposition party. 

The more radical members of the democratic societies 
were never enthusiastic over neutrality. These organiza- 
tions sprang into existence with the coming of Genet, in 
imitation of the French Jacobin clubs. They affected to 
believe themselves the true disciples of the Eights of Man, 
and that the hope of Europe hung on the success of the 
French Revolution. No doubt this affiliation with France 
retarded the success of neutrality, yet it must be remem- 
bered that these societies also aimed to make America more 
democratic. Their fundamental cause lies in the growing 
conflict between nationality and democracy. They would 
have had no existence if there had not been a body of 
men of opposite ideas and purposes, and who were looked 
upon as favoring less democracy, if not more aristocracy, 
in the government of America. These societies became the 
severest critics of the administration and encouraged the 
Whiskey Rebellion. They possessed the virtues and de- 
fects of mad enthusiasts over ideas necessary for the com- 
plete development of American nationality, and were also 
the angry opponents of an idea whose union with democ- 
racy was necessary to the latter's permanent and healthy 
existence on this continent. 

The contribution to nationality made by our relations with 
France was greatly influenced by our relations with Eng- 
land. Troubles with England had come down through the 
Confederation. She refused to carry out some of the pro- 



162 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

visions of the treaty of 1783, and to give up her illiberal 
commercial policy. In addition, the war in Europe made 
it desirable for her to confiscate American commerce of any 
kind with France and French colonies, and also to search 
American vessels for English-born sailors. This injury to 
property and persons sailing under the American flag 
aroused great indignation against England in 1793 and 
1794. Measures of retaliation were proposed in congress, 
and a temporary embargo was passed. President Wash- 
ington sent Chief Justice Jay to England to arrange 
matters. This mission made the democracy in the country 
furious, as they could discover in it all sorts of danger to 
America, insults to France, and truckling to England. Un- 
fortunately the treaty itself could easily be taken as proof 
of all this. The senate confirmed the treaty after a hard 
fight, but popular feeling was so strong against Hamilton 
that he was in danger from mobs ; Jay was burned in 
efUgy, and Washington himself was vilified. The treaty 
perhaps saved us from war at that time. But while it 
promoted partisanship, it taught the friends of England 
that she was not likely to be at all generous while dealing 
with American interests. England missed a great oppor- 
tunity to restore to some extent the sympathy lost in 
the Revolution ; but she began to teach Americans the 
lesson they needed most to learn : that nothing but self- 
interest would control European nations in dealing with 
America. Of course this lesson was not fully mastered 
till we had another experience with France, and a decisive 
one with England during the War of 1812. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 163 

The second experience with France was in the adminis- 
tration of John Adams. The French had indulged in the 
pastime of capturing American vessels, and now looked 
upon Jay's treaty as an insult. They also resented the 
recall of Minister Monroe — a Democrat — and refused to 
receive C. C. Pinckney instead, or any other minister, till 
their alleged injuries had been atoned. In 1797 Gerry 
and Marshall were sent to join Pinckney. The Directory 
kept them waiting while its agents X, Y, and Z tried to 
secure a bribe of £50,000 as the condition of French favor. 
The ringing message of President Adams and the publica- 
tion of the X, Y, Z correspondence kindled a flame of 
indignation. Democratic friendship for France was almost 
silenced; democracy was beginning to learn its lesson. 
Measures for war were rapidly pushed forward in the 
spring and summer of 1798 ; they included a land force 
with Washington as commander-in-chief, and a further 
equipment of the navy. The war spirit ran high, and 
addresses of congratulation and expressions of enthusi- 
astic support poured in on President Adams. Great 
demonstrations were held to testify the people's resent- 
ment against France and their approval of the president's 
spirited conduct. The black cockade superseded the 
French tricolor in popular favor, and the elections of 
1798 indicated a rising Federal tide. Subscriptions to 
extreme democratic papers fell off, particularly in the case 
of the Aurora, which had advocated compliance with the 
corrupt demands of the Directory. This whole experience 
taught Jefferson and his Democratic-Eepublicans that 



164 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

little good and great harm were likely to result to their 
party from partisanship for France. While the term 
"French party" was still applied to them, yet from this 
time on it had little justification. 

Rapid Development of Anti-Democratic Sentiment among 
the Federalists. — The Federalists now became over-confi- 
dent as they saw themselves floating into power again on a 
wave of popularity. They thought the reaction an approval 
of their principles, while it was rather an expression of 
national feeling against France. When, therefore, they 
tried to transform this into a condemnation of the demo- 
cratic spirit of their opponents, they wrought their own 
destruction. Three measures were passed by congress in 
1798 to accomplish this end : 1. An amendment to the 
naturalization law, extending the term of preliminary resi- 
dence from five to fourteen years. The Federalists feared 
the presence of foreigners, but this fear would have been 
very slight if these foreigners had been enrolling them- 
selves under the banner of strong government. 2. An act 
concerning aliens which gave the president power to order 
them to depart from our country if he considered them 
dangerous to its welfare. Disobedience to his decree was 
punishable by imprisonment, and forfeiture of citizenship 
forever. 3. An act to punish citizens by fine and impris- 
onment for opposing the national administration by combi- 
nation or by scandalous or malicious writing. This act 
demonstrated thorough distrust of freedom of discussion 
and of the tendencies of American democracy. These acts, 
and the attempts to enforce the last one, mark the extreme 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 165 

application of national authority by the adherents of strong 
government to protect it against the opposition. The re- 
action expressed in the election of Jefferson in 1800 
showed that the people were no more ready to follow the 
attempt to suppress democracy than they were to support 
the friends of France in 1798. The instincts and judg- 
ment of the people were entirely correct in refusing to 
follow either, for the perpetuity of the nation demanded 
that nationality should become democratic, as well as that 
democracy should become nationalistic. 

The immediate result of this legislation was the Ken- 
tucky and Virginia resolutions, prepared by Jefferson and 
Madison, and passed by their legislatures. They pro- 
tested against the Alien and Sedition laws, set forth the 
nature of the national government, and deduced therefrom 
the grounds of opposition. There were three main points 
to each : 1. The Constitution is a compact between sover- 
eign states, and the national government is one of limited 
and specified powers. 2. The sovereign states are the 
judges of violations of the compact. 3. In cases of pal- 
pable and dangerous violations it is the duty of the states 
to "interpose," said Virginia, and "nullify," said Ken- 
tucky. These resolutions were the most extreme assertion 
as yet made of the principle of state sovereignty as a 
means of protecting democracy in its struggle for existence. 
While they called the attention of the country, in an official 
way, to the dangers of the new legislation, the people did 
not rally enthusiastically to their support. In fact, not 
another legislature voted them as the sentiment of its 



166 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

state, while several condemned them. It was thus toler- 
ably evident that one extreme was offsetting the other. 

In spite of the reaction against the Alien and Sedition 
laws, the Federalists were in favor, in 1799 and 1800, of 
keeping up a good military and naval force and of extend- 
ing the scope of the national judiciary. The latter was 
accomplished by a national bankrupt act which gave 
district courts plenty of work, and by a bill which estab- 
lished circuit courts, circuit judges, and provided facilities 
for appeals from state to national courts. These measures 
showed a determination to strengthen national authority as 
far as possible against the rising tide of democracy. In 
fact this last measure was passed after Jefferson's election, 
and the appointments under it were incomplete when Jef- 
ferson took his seat. The extension of the national judi- 
ciary and the appointment of John Marshall as Chief 
Justice exerted a powerful influence in preventing real 
injury to the national system by the success of Jefferson's 
anti-national followers ; and while the repeal of many 
measures could not be hindered, yet Marshall and his de- 
cisions did make impossible any application of the Ken- 
tucky and Virginia resolutions. 

The Triumph of Democracy. — The political battle in 
1800 was another phase of the contest between nationality 
and democracy. It was the first organized and successful 
effort of the latter to get hold of the machinery by means of 
which their opponents had wielded power. The conscious 
effort to get control had grown steadily since Jefferson 
left Washington's cabinet, and, with the exception of the 



THE DEVELOPMENT OE NATIONALITY. 167 

reaction in 1798, the people were slowly moving toward 
Jefferson and democracy. The campaign of 1800 was 
contested with great passion, and each party professed to 
see, in the success of the other, great danger to the country. 
The causes of the defeat of the Federal party were : 1. 
The aristocratic tendencies of its leaders which led some of 
the common people who followed them for a time finally to 
desert for more congenial associations. Not only did these 
leaders believe in and advocate government by means of 
position and influence, but they scarcely tried to conceal 
their distrust of the common people. 2. An excessive 
dependence upon national power, and the knowledge that 
many Federal leaders advocated its further extension, even 
to invading what was then supposed to belong to the re- 
served rights of the states. This policy, as it appeared in 
efforts at legislation, was the logical result of the preceding 
cause. 3. The presence of irreconcilable factions in the 
party — one clustering around. Hamilton, the other sup- 
porting President Adams. This fact of itself was proof of 
the degeneracy of the party that had done a noble work in 
establishing national power. In the long, hard battle its 
habits had become so set that democratic measures of a 
moderate sort found little support in its ranks. This fail- 
ure to appreciate and acquiesce in the popular decision was 
shown in the intrigues over the choice of a president by 
the representatives. No one doubted that Jefferson was 
meant for the first place by his party, but still the result 
was long delayed, and if moderate counsel had not pre- 
vailed among the Federalists, it is hard to say what the 



168 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

result would have been. This last episode rendered them 
more unpopular with the masses. 

The defeat of the Federalists was not the death of 
nationality. The success of the Republicans was not the 
triumph of the extreme principles of their party. What- 
ever pledges they had made must now be modified by the 
fact that they are to work through national machinery. 
The operation of this machinery could not be obstructed, 
for this would discredit the party. Besides, what harm 
could come to democracy while its leaders were in con- 
trol ? Jefferson's inaugural was such as to allay fears of 
reactionary measures, and to indicate a purpose to win 
over the moderates of the opposition. This was not for 
purposes hostile to the nation, for Jefferson wrote that he 
wished " to restore that harmony which our predecessors 
so wickedly made it their object to break, to render us 
again one people, acting as one nation." His moderation 
is further revealed in his inaugural by the statement in 
regard to the proper position of the state and national 
governments : "The support of the state governments in 
all their rights as the most competent administrations for 
our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against 
anti-republican tendencies ; the preservation of the gen- 
eral government in its whole constitutional vigor as the 
sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad." 
The above quotations are the keynote to his moderation 
in making removals from office, and the middle course 
the party took in carrying out its policy. 

Three reforms were immediately undertaken : 1, Repeal 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 169 

of the law extending the Federal courts, and the impeach- 
ment of obnoxious judges. The former was accomplished, 
but the latter was only partially successful. It was found 
impossible to secure the conviction of so bitter a partisan 
as Judge Chase. The failure to intimidate the judiciary 
left the national system impregnable, and taught the 
extreme Republicans their limitations. 2. The repeal of 
internal taxes. This included Hamilton's excise and a 
sort of stamp duty passed, under danger of war, in Adams' 
administration. We have already seen how the people 
resented this form of taxation and objected to the burden 
imposed. This necessitated great retrenchment in national 
expenditures. The civil service, the army, and the navy 
were largely cut down. The democratic idea of govern- 
ment, as well as economy, called for some reform. 3. The 
naturalization law was restored to its former condition, 
thus proving democracy the friend of the foreigner who 
sought a home in America. A fourth proof of democratic 
spirit was given by Jefferson himself when he abolished 
the forms and ceremonies that had grown up between 
the legislative and executive departments, and simplified 
or abolished social affairs connected with his office. Jef- 
ferson thoroughly opposed courtly ceremonial and official 
parade as entirely inconsistent with republicanism. He 
determined to set the example himself of one who ruled 
a great people by the merit of his work, and not by the 
external trappings so characteristic of the governments 
of Europe. 

The popularity of these measures and of Jefferson's 



170 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

general conduct was rapidly demonstrated by the constant 
accessions to his party. His whole policy made it evident 
that his opponents had intentionally misrepresented him 
and his party, or had misunderstood the intention and 
spirit of democracy. 

The Mutual Approach of Nationality and Democ- 
racy, 1803-1820. 

General Features of this Phase. — Long ago the student 
must have discovered that at the very point of triumph 
in the movement of an idea, a new phase of it begins to 
take form. Gradually democracy and nationality cease 
to battle against each other, and more and more find the 
highest good of one to be the greatest good of the other. 
The changed circumstances and relations wrought by the 
preceding struggle made its continuance well-nigh impos- 
sible. First, we have seen that democracy has not always 
been hostile to a reasonable national patriotism, although 
their opponents so argued. Secondly, the Federalists were 
now an opposition party, and it would be very awkward 
for them to oppose the new administration by urging it 
to a more vigorous exercise of national power. In fact, 
they soon became anti-national themselves, and advocated 
strict construction of the Constitution. They thus aban- 
doned their old ground to their opponents. Thirdly, the 
development of great national parties forced upon the 
attention of the people a constant study of questions of 
national import. Unless the democracy of the country 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 171 

could develop common sympathies over common objects, 
it could not maintain itself. Local interests and objects 
might do as the basis for an opposition ; but after victory, 
what then ? Very evidently the party must enter on a 
well-defined policy, and bring into harmonious coopera- 
tion all its elements of support. Mere party success, 
therefore, tended to call into being an organization with 
national features. In the fourth place, the very com- 
plete success of Jefferson's party in both state and 
nation, by the close of his first administration, placed a 
vast responsibility on its shoulders. How could this 
best be met ? Not by refusing to use power, but by its 
vigorous exercise. 

The democratic leaders did not consciously aim to cen- 
tralize power, but the circumstances named above were 
against them, and the future opened up opportunities 
and duties that could be met in no other way. In 
spite of these controlling circumstances, the leaders still 
continued to make their political confessions in terms of 
strict construction. The explanation is partly found in 
the fact that the circumstances of the new situation were 
not correctly divined, and that the growth of interest 
among the masses in national questions and their readier 
response to the sentiment of nationality were largely 
unconscious. This is particularly true of the movement 
up to the War of 1812. From this date till 1820 the people 
are more and more conscious that the old Jeffersonian 
democracy is moving in new directions. In the analysis 
and interpretation of this new phase of the relation between 



172 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

nationality and democracy, the narration of events will be 
omitted as far as possible, since the only purpose is to 
reveal to the student the process by which these two forces 
began to approach each other. 

The Purchase of Louisiana (1803). — This was the 
greatest event of Jefferson's administration, and, because 
of its effect upon nationality, may properly be taken as 
opening the new movement. After the leading incidents 
of the purchase are in hand, attention must be turned to 
the bearing of the event on the problem before us. 1. The 
fact of the purchase is of itself positive evidence of the 
vast development in national sentiment already accom- 
plished. No such an acquisition of foreign territory was 
possible under the Confederation, and this may be taken 
as a measure of the distance national sentiment has trav- 
eled since 1789. 2. The purchase produced a profound 
effect upon the settlers of the Southwest by checking 
their growing hostility to the national government. The 
Federalists had neglected them, and more than once had 
they talked of setting up for themselves. Now their 
interests were secure from foreigners at the mouth of 
the Mississippi, and their commerce moved unchecked 
to the Gulf and the Atlantic states. Commercial connec- 
tion was no small factor in binding these people to the 
rest of the Union. The strength of this growth and its 
value to the Union were put to the test when Burr formed 
his conspiracy. Had his expedition been made earlier 
while this hardy people was disaffected it might have been 
successful, but coming after the purchase it was easily a 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 173 

failure. 3. The possession of land beyond the Mississippi 
gave added weight to arguments for a system of internal 
improvement, and no doubt influenced the construction of 
the great National Road, whose eventual western terminus 
was near St. Louis. The whole project of internal improve- 
ment, both proposed and accomplished, did much toward 
knitting the parts of the nation together. The possession 
of the Mississippi with its tributaries gave an unlimited 
opportunity to Fulton's invention which was soon plying 
the great river and its connections, and thus by rapid com- 
munication aided in consolidating the parts of the Union. 
All sections now seemed to dwell in closer proximity than 
ever before. 4. Almost a million square miles, added to 
our national domain, seemed to offer unlimited opportunity 
for the expansion of population and the creation of new 
states. This, with the states from the old Northwest, 
which were to bear the same relation to the Union, pro- 
foundly affected national sentiment, and even changed the 
nature of the Union. These new states are the creatures of 
the nation, while the old thirteen were its creators. They 
could not look back with pride to a period of independ- 
ent existence. On the whole, therefore, their people had 
different feelings toward the nation from those of the peo- 
ple of the older states, and in the main this difference was 
on the side of love and admiration for the rising nation. 
5. The preservation of the balance of power between sec- 
tions had been an object of solicitude since the constitu- 
tional convention. The purchase was bitterly opposed in 
New England as destroying its position in the Union, and 



174 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

caused threats of secession. For the time, national spirit 
declined in this section, but remotely the purchase gave 
a great preponderance to the free over the slave states, 
and thus contributed powerfully to save the Union in 
the Civil War. 6. Immediately the purchase argued for 
nationality by demonstrating the impracticability of strict 
construction. Strict construction was a fundamental prin- 
ciple in the creed of Jefferson's party, but he and his 
party consciously violated it because it stood in the way 
of a great national interest. Not only this, but it was all 
done without even asking the consent of the states whose 
future relations to the Union were so fundamentally 
touched. This act did not even emanate from the legis- 
lative department, but was almost entirely the work of the 
national executive. 1 If this act be tried by the standard 
of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions it is quite revo- 
lutionary, and Jefferson himself must have felt so, for he 
suggested amending the Constitution so as to ratify his 
action. His party did not take his suggestion seriously, 
thus showing its lack of interest in making good one of 
its old dogmas and its willingness to be responsible for 

1 In the interpretation of the purchase the student may discover 
and state its meaning in various terms, but may not at first effort be 
able to reduce them to terms of nationality. But, if possible, the 
answers should all be so reduced in order that their highest signifi- 
cance may be realized, and that they may be unified under some 
great principle of growth. If possible, the student must see that the 
greatest results of this event were largely unconscious, or so remote 
that their actors did not perceive them. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 175 

an act that did vastly more to consolidate national power 
than any act of either Hamilton or Adams. 1 

English Aggressions, 1803-1812 This heading sug- 
gests the narration of events. But it is selected to name 
the external causes of an internal growth on the part of 
Americans. Already it has been mentioned that the ten- 
dency in this phase of development is for democracy and 
nationality to approach each other. The former is begin- 
ning to appreciate the necessity of the latter, while the 
latter is ceasing to fear the former. This process of 
mutual approach goes on more rapidly than ever before, 
for the need of each for the other is more continuous and 
pressing. The above growth is checked and limited by the 
rise of a counter movement mainly confined to New Eng- 
land and the middle states. This anti-national sentiment 
connected itself with sympathy for England, and thus 
brought upon itself the odium of being unpatriotic. 

During the Confederation constant complaint was made 
against England's attitude toward her former colonies. 
This was continued down to Jay's treaty, and hardly 
ceased then. The occasion of its renewal grew out of cir- 

1 " However its statesmen might declaim about original compact, 
"whatever Republican conventions might declare, the great empire 
beyond the Mississippi was to stand forever as a contradiction of their 
theories. Thereafter no man could, in the country store, around the 
post-office stove, on the courthouse steps, at the country fair, or upon 
the road, advance the ' compact ' theory of the government, without 
being liable to have the Louisiana purchase thrown in his face." 
— Walker's Making of the Nation, p. 184. 



176 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

cumstances connected with the Napoleonic wars. There 
were three main causes : 1. Seizure of neutral goods in 
American vessels. 2. Searching American vessels for for- 
mer British seamen who had deserted or who had become 
naturalized Americans. 3. Impressment of American sea- 
men. A fourth set of circumstances greatly aggravated 
the above, namely, the blockading and other decrees of 
both Napoleon and England. 

The Democracy's Efforts at Redress. — Democracy is 
now in a process of transition, and tries to solve the most 
intricate problems of international relations by means 
consistent, to some extent, with its past profession of 
principles; but the new circumstances with their almost 
unsolvable problems at the same time forced a modification 
of these principles. Democracy cannot escape the laws of 
continuity and differentiation ; hence what was done must 
partake of a double nature and seem inconsistent with its 
past, while in fact it was the highest kind of consistency. 
Jefferson and his party, in carrying out their programme, 
had curtailed both army and navy, and had reduced taxa- 
tion to a strictly peace basis. But the above aggressions 
betokened war, and the problem was to coerce England 
especially, and at the same time avoid war. The following 
measures are referred to as briefly as possible for the 
purpose of discovering their double significance : how they 
connected themselves with the general spirit of democracy, 
and how they tended to transform and nationalize its spirit. 

1. A naval militia, or local gunboats, was the first meas- 
ure to secure protection to American commercial interests. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 177 

The plan was to furnish, each seaport with the means of 
self-defence, to be employed as occasion offered. In the 
absence of danger the gunboat was to be out of water, and 
the crew about their usual occupations. This appeared to 
be a promising mode of avoiding heavy naval expenditures. 
But even this took over a million and a half of Jefferson's 
surplus and really accomplished little by way of defence ; 
certainly it lowered us greatly in the estimation of the 
great armed nations of Europe. 

2. The next were negotiations with England looking 
to a settlement of difficulties. These ran over much of 
Jefferson's last administration. England refused to sur- 
render impressments, to admit that "free ships made free 
goods," and to open her West Indian ports to us. A treaty, 
completed in December, 1806, Jefferson did not submit to 
the senate, knowing full well that public sentiment would 
be deeply humiliated, and indignantly resent the insult. 
Nevertheless, Jefferson's method of disposing of the treaty 
was hardly in harmony with the spirit of democracy, 
although this same democracy justified the act, for the 
people forgot the method in their admiration of the act 
which refused to barter American seamen for a few paltry 
European trade concessions which England would not obey 
longer than European complications made it desirable. 

3. In the same year, 1806, congress passed a Non-im- 
portation Act, another democratic measure of coercion. 
England was injured somewhat, but America was not 
benefited ; the struggle with Napoleon was too intense for 
her to notice the harm we inflicted. 



178 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

4. After the failure of these measures, and following 
the orders in council and the outrage on the Chesapeake, 
the president summoned congress in extra session and 
recommended the Embargo. Three days' debate in the 
house and four hours' in the senate sufficed to satisfy the 
majority. Indeed the nation's pride was deeply stung, and 
no doubt it felt the words uttered by John Quincy Adams : 
" The president has recommended the measure on his high 
responsibility. I would not consider, I would not deliber- 
ate, I would act." Seldom has such power been conferred 
on such short notice, and practically for the asking. No 
doubt the passage of this law proves the confidence of con- 
gress in the president, but it also proves his willingness to 
exercise vast national powers oyer commerce, such as none 
of his predecessors enjoyed. His judgment was to decide 
whether American ships were to go abroad, and his deci- 
sion was to be backed by the navy and revenue cutters. 
Erom the very first the majority of Federalists in the 
middle states and New England were indignantly hostile to 
the measure, and soon the traders in the great ports were 
actively engaged in eluding the law. Smuggling found a 
supporting public sentiment in these places — especially in 
Boston and New York. The carrying trade and its allied 
interests looked upon the Embargo as purposely planned 
for their injury. Jefferson had created the impression 
that he was hostile to foreign commerce, and so he found 
his record on the question standing in the way of the law. 
The result was that New England Eederalists became 
more and more anti-national, and were guilty, under the 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 179 

exasperation of injury, of speaking words of sympathy for 
England. A few even recommended submission to British 
indignity as had been done by the French faction, and held 
private communications with the minister sent to adjust 
the Chesapeake affair. The legislatures of Federal states 
protested strongly against the Embargo ; town meetings 
did likewise, and there were hints at separation. The 
spirit of opposition grew bolder after the act was amended 
in 1809 so as to extend the power of the president ; the 
law was printed in mourning type, revolutionary mottoes 
were displayed, and hints were thrown out of a New 
England convention to inquire into the reserved rights of 
the states. However, matters in New England were not. all 
running toward sectionalism, for a number of aggressive 
Republicans fought for the national policy, and found their 
ranks strengthened by the patriotic conduct of John Quincy 
Adams and other men of note. The disunion scare, the 
immense injury to all American interests, and the failure 
to produce any effect on either England or France led to 
the repeal of the Embargo in the spring of 1809. 

Effects on the Progress of Democracy and Nationality. 
— Great results had been wrought out in this contest : 
1. The Eepublican party, which was more and more in its 
composition becoming identical with American democracy 
had fairly committed itself to the exercise of vast national 
power, and had certainly pointed the way in emergencies 
to an almost despotic use of such power. Democracy was 
therefore beginning to occupy, with a courage born of 
experience, good old Federal ground, once held only by 



180 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Hamilton and his followers. The party of Jefferson was 
beginning to act as if necessity was the true interpreter 
of the Constitution. 2. The failure of the Embargo and 
of other peaceable means of coercion forced upon the 
country the conviction that war was a necessity. The 
continued conduct of England was producing gradually a 
war party within the ranks of the democracy. 3. The 
remnant of the Federal party had become pretty thor- 
oughly sectional, and was beginning to make its political 
confessions in terms of the Kentucky and Virginia resolu- 
tions. 4. A fourth phase of public sentiment appeared in 
the vehement accusations of these two parties, each against 
the other, of friendship for France and enmity toward 
England, or vice versa. This resulted in each party trying 
to avoid this cause of distrust for the future, so that when 
Non-intercourse was substituted for the Embargo, France 
and England were formally placed on the same footing. 
5. Another fact containing the germ of a greater nation- 
ality grew out of the Embargo, namely, the rise of new 
industries and the expansion of those already established. 
The War of 18 12 as a Product of the National Spirit. — 
It has often been said, but will bear repeating, that the 
true interpretation of a series of events lies in two phases 
of public sentiment. First, the phase that immediately 
precedes, and is more or less in, the events themselves, and 
secondly, the phase that succeeds the events. The first 
is the true cause of the origin of the events, and to some 
extent determines their character. The second is their 
true result. So far as the series of events called the War 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 181 

of 1812 is concerned; the process of interpretation has 
been begun in the preceding study. The main features 
of this first stage of public sentiment may be referred to 
again in order to trace them as factors in the production 
of the war : 1. An extreme anti-national sentiment opposed 
to war and to the exercise of national power by the party 
in office. This sentiment existed among the high Feder- 
alists. 2. A peace and strict-construction sentiment exist- 
ing among the old Republicans, and on occasions coalescing 
with the Federalists. 3. A rising national and war senti- 
ment which found its principal supporters in the so-called 
Republican party, and in a small contingent of patriotic 
Federalists whose party had deserted them. The war ele- 
ment was strong from Pennsylvania southward, and had the 
solid and enthusiastic support of the new states. In the 
absence of distracting local problems, the people of these 
rising western states and territories were more uniformly 
democratic and national than the populations of the old 
states ; more democratic because the rough life of the 
frontier equalized conditions to a marvelous extent ; more 
national because they were the creatures of the nation 
and felt their great dependence upon it. " Here no pride 
of statehood diminished the affection and devotion of the 
citizen to the government under which he held the title 
to his land ; to which he looked for protection from the 
savage foe ; which opened up the navigation of the rivers 
to his clumsy flatboat ; which endowed the school in which 
his children learned to read. Constitutional scruples were 
at a discount with these rude, strong, brave men. . . . They 



182 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

wanted a government, and a strong government ; and in 
the continually growing power of the Bepublic they found 
the competent object of their civic trust and pride and 
love." 1 Originally followers of Jefferson, their peculiar 
life led them into the ranks of the aggressive portion of 
the party, while their harassing experiences with the 
Indians, due, as they thought, to British agents, made 
them early and enthusiastic advocates of war. The above 
is also applicable to the mountain populations of the older 
states. This sentiment soon found advocates in the 
national councils. Its chief exponents were Henry Clay 
and John G. Calhoun, who were ably seconded by Felix 
Grundy, Langdon Cheves, and Porter. These men, aided 
by England's continued bad conduct, forced the peace- 
loving and timid Madison into war. 

In making this interpretation it must not be forgotten 
that this war party, in spite of its great strides toward 
nationality, had inherited the legitimate fruits of that 
earlier democracy which doted on low taxes, a small navy, 
and a smaller army. The preservation of this condition 
had been a great argument for Jefferson's foreign policy. 
It was now more than an argument for democracy — it was 
a disaster to the country. Even now, on the verge of war 
with the greatest naval power of the world, the democ- 
racy of the nation could not quite recharter Hamilton's 
bank, and establish an efficient navy. It showed wonder- 
ful progress that the bank was defeated by but one vote, 
and that something was done towards a navy, but the 
1 Walker's Making of the Nation, p. 171. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 183 

"miss was as good as a mile." Of course nothing was more 
national in that day than the United States bank and the 
navy. The former touched the currents of trade every- 
where, and its notes, bearing the national stamp, were no 
respecters of state lines. But even more was the navy the 
representative of national power. It stood as the visible 
symbol of national dignity to all foreign powers, and ready 
to assail them in defence of its people. The navy was not 
sectional. No state could claim it as it claimed the militia. 
A shot at the flag as it waved from the mast was felt by 
the whole people as an insult to be resented. A disinter- 
ested patriotism ought to have dictated a great navy, 
especially since the commercial states called for it. The 
failure to create one gave point to their opposition to the 
war. Aside from these failures, the war democracy was 
enthusiastic in the use of national powers, as the follow- 
ing measures enacted between 1811 and 1815 prove : an 
embargo preliminary to war, a doubling of the tariff, an 
excise and a stamp tax, provision for a great national 
debt, larger regular army, an army of volunteers, regu- 
lations pertaining to the use of the state militia, and 
finally, the administration was screwing up its courage 
for a conscription law and for government paper money. 
Most of these measures had been passionately denounced 
by the party in the campaign of 1800. The people were 
not inconsistent ; they had grown. 

The bearing of national sentiment on the progress of 
the war may be seen in the fact that where enthusiastic 
devotion to the nation was most universal, there the 



184 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

greatest victories were won, and where this was at its 
lowest ebb, there occurred the greatest disasters. No anti- 
national sentiment could reach our navy on lake or sea, 
and the navy was the glory of the war. The victories of 
Harrison and Jackson were the most brilliant won on 
land, while the invasions of Canada, supported mainly by 
New York and New England, were the least successful 
campaigns of the war. The campaign for the defence of 
Washington may be regarded as a partial exception to 
the above. 

Opposition to the declaration of war was strongest in 
New England and New York, but a few votes also came 
from other middle states and from the South. The prog- 
ress of the conflict only intensified the hostility of New 
England. This section repeated in extremer fashion the 
methods of opposition used against the Embargo. Some 
additional means were : the refusal of one or two gov- 
ernors to allow the state militia to be used by the nation, 
attempts of capitalists to prevent loans to the nation, 
draining specie from southern and western banks, open 
expressions of favor for England, and finally, the Hartford 
Convention. These are all anti-national, particularly the 
last. It was popularly believed that its aim was the seces- 
sion of New England from the Union. Its documents are 
thoroughly imbued with the state-sovereignty idea of the 
Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, as is amply demon- 
strated by the propositions set before their legislatures, 
and those recommended as amendments to the national 
Constitution. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 185 

The War as a Factor in Nationalizing Democracy. — 

The second phase of interpretation is to discover how this 
war promoted the evolution of the national spirit. To 
do this accurately the student must remember that the 
movement in ideas and institutions set on foot by it are 
more important than its military events. And yet it must 
not be forgotten that war is a sort of seething caldron 
of human thought and mad passion. Into this are poured 
old ideas and apparently permanent habits of action. 
These dissolve into their original elements, and new com- 
binations are formed from them. War is a time of bold 
initiative and courageous endeavor ; new men and new 
measures result from new environment. Hence we must 
expect the forces of nationality and democracy to come 
out of the war greatly modified. This is best discovered 
by looking into the content of the great measures that 
followed peace. 

1. The national debt was over $120,000,000, while cur- 
rency and credit were in a deplorable condition. Gallatin, 
Jefferson's great financier, tried to forestall disaster by 
asking for a new bank charter in 1811. This was refused. 
War with its lessons came, and President Madison, Secre- 
tary Dallas, Speaker Clay, and John C. Calhoun favored 
its restoration in 1816. Its capital was more than three 
times that of Hamilton's bank, and it was as fully en- 
dowed with authority. While it was more national, it 
was more democratic ; five of its directors were appointed 
by the president, and both congress and the secretary of 
the treasury were more directly connected with this than 



186 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

with, the former. Stock was opened in each state, and con- 
gress could compel the location of branches among its 
constituents. In 1811 Henry Clay opposed the bank in an 
elaborate argument based on strict construction and true to 
the ancient ideals of his party ; in 1816 he was just as 
enthusiastic for the bank, and his argument would have 
done credit to Hamilton. Clay was not inconsistent, but 
he had grown in knowledge and practical experience. 

2. The Embargo and war cut off foreign importations, 
and at the same time greatly injured American capital 
employed in the carrying trade. This unintentional and 
injurious result gave origin to a phase of economic life 
which profoundly influenced the course of nationality. 
The need of a new field for capital and the demand for 
home products were simultaneous. By 1815 America had 
made great strides toward economic independence. Peace 
threatened to overwhelm the new industries by English 
competition. The nation was appealed to for defensive 
measures, and the party which had created conditions call- 
ing them into existence responded promptly and patriotic- 
ally with a protective tariff. Madison himself argued for 
protection to industries tending to make us independent of 
foreign production. The champions of this tariff were the 
leaders of the war party ; its opponents were Federalists 
and a few Eepublicans who still held to old party standards. 
But the majority of this party were now consciously using 
national power for the development of national resources. 

3. Another lesson learned during the war was that good 
roads and other means of easy transit had something to 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 187 

do with the success of military movements. Again war 
brought peace with the Indians, and population rapidly 
moved westward. Ohio in 1810 numbered only 230,000, 
but in 1820, 580,100. In 1810 Indiana had but 24,800, 
while in 1820 the population had risen to 147,000. Thus 
were social and economic reasons added to military neces- 
sity in favor of internal improvements. It had been 
the dream of Jefferson to apply the surplus which his 
economy had created to the unification of America by 
canals and roads, constructed by the cooperation of the 
state and national governments. John C. Calhoun in 1816 
and 1817 presented a bill to create a national fund for 
internal improvement. Madison vetoed it because of its 
violation of the principle of strict construction, and rec- 
ommended an amendment covering the question. The 
agitation for internal improvements went steadily on as 
new states rapidly rose in the West. Appropriations had 
already been made for the Cumberland Road. After the 
war the demand came for its extension to the westward 
under the name of the National Eoad. By 1820 over 
$1,500,000 had been expended upon it. So far had senti- 
ment grown away from the old point of view that the 
national Republicans made internal improvements a cardi- 
nal point in their programme, and more than two and a 
quarter millions were appropriated for this purpose during 
John Quincy Adams' administration. 

The final decline of sentiment in favor of national aid to 
roads and canals was not due to a decline in oationality, 
but because the steamboat and the railroad were beginning 



188 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

to meet the demand for rapid and easy social and com- 
mercial communication. Fulton's invention was successful 
in 1807, and at the opening of the War of 1812 steamboats 
were appearing on western rivers. After the war their num- 
bers grew rapidly ; their work in binding the East to the 
West was of untold value to the nation, although it was 
largely a process whose significance was not then seen. 

4. The war destroyed both the organization of the Fed- 
eralists and the original doctrines of the Republicans. All 
that was vital in the former was developed and applied 
by the new Eepublicans. All that was dangerous in the 
Jeffersonian democracy was absorbed by the Federalists as 
an opposition party. As the contest went on democracy 
constantly gained and aristocracy as constantly lost. Fed- 
eralism not only became narrow, but also unpatriotic and 
threatened the nation's life. It found no place among the 
hardy western populations, and because aristocracy does not 
emigrate it remained geographically stationary. Federal- 
ism disappeared in name in the Era of Good Feeling. Its 
old leaders had passed away ; its younger members found 
congenial company among the National Eepublicans. On 
its political side the Era of Good Feeling marked the final 
disappearance of the difference that had separated democ- 
racy and nationality. And while the party calling itself 
Democratic does go on mumbling the Jeffersonian formulae, 
yet the body of its members do not oppose, but generally 
favor, nationality. 

5. During the greater part of the era marked by the 
transformation of American democracy, a series of deci- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 189 

sions of vast consequence to the development of the nation 
were handed down by the Supreme Court. John Marshall 
had been made Chief Justice by John Adams just as the 
Federalist party was passing from power. Although 
deserted by his party, Marshall was faithful to the work 
appointed for him to do. Steadily there fell from his pen 
a series of decisions touching the powers of the nation 
under the Constitution. In 1816 the Supreme Court dem- 
onstrated its right to be the final interpreter of the Consti- 
tution thus limiting the power of state courts. Later 
Marshall rendered a decision justifying a resort to implied 
powers in the creation of the bank ; in 1810, and again 
in 1819, he denied the power of the state legislature to 
impair the obligations of contracts. Public sentiment was 
not shocked at the principles announced in these decisions, 
thus showing how much it had grown, especially between 
1810 and 1820. 

6. The war exerted many subtle effects on the mutual 
movements of nationality and democracy. None were 
more so than the effect upon what may be termed Ameri- 
can literary thought. No department of life yielded so 
slowly to the inspiring touch of nationality and democracy. 
Before the war little was produced which could be called 
literature, and less that was national in tone, although 
there was much controversial writing over politics. The 
literary men were generally out of sympathy with the dem- 
ocratic movements of the period, and seldom found subjects 
relating to American life and tendencies to inspire their 
pens. The few writers were generally imitators of Euro- 



190 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

pean standards. The nationalizing effect of the war showed 
itself in the field of literature, for now there arose men 
who soon won fame for America. Among them may be 
named Paulding, Irving, Bryant, Cooper, Halleck, Drake, 
Percival, and Sprague. In 1815 was founded the North 
American Review. As early as 1811 was established that 
famous old journal, Niles* Weekly Register, whose intense 
Americanism did much to stimulate national pride. A new 
race of orators, deeply imbued with an ardor truly patriotic, 
now sprang into existence. Among these were Channing, 
Clay, Webster, Everett, and many others of lesser note. 

Significance of the Era of Good Feeling. — This is partly 
discovered in the facts immediately preceding. Its deeper 
meaning lies in the fact that it was the culmination of the 
movement for the nationalization of American democracy 
and for the popularizing of American nationality. Then was 
political disintegration complete and political animosity 
forgotten. President Monroe's journey, as far eastward as 
Boston and westward as Detroit, furnishes sufficient evi- 
dence that there was once more a president of the whole 
people. 1 It was also an age of political integration, for in 

1 It was a Boston paper that called this period " the era of good 
feeling." Another Boston paper said that "the visit of the president 
seems to have wholly allayed the storms of party. People now meet 
in the same room who a short while since would scarcely pass along 
the same street." A third stated that "the visit has a more direct 
tendency than any other to remove prejudices, to harmonize feelings, 
annihilate dissensions, and make us indeed one people." In Hartford 
the president was called a "political father and guide." — McMaster, 
vol. iv. pp. 379-380. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 191 

the crisis of the election in 1824 men of Federal antece- 
dents and the National Kepublicans coalesced and elected 
John Quincy Adams. This presaged a new party. In this 
campaign each section had its candidate, and so strongly 
were the people attached to their favorite sons that they 
refused to abide by the customary action of the congres- 
sional caucus. This institution had stood between the 
presidency and the people, but it was now forever destroyed. 
The destruction of this undemocratic piece of machinery 
shows a tendency of the people to directly participate in 
national affairs ; they were greatly stimulated by the pres- 
ence of presidential candidates from so many parts of 
the country. The common people took a sort of personal 
interest, not before witnessed, in the campaign because 
of their warm personal regard for the candidates. This 
was also prophetic. 

The Fusion of Nationality and Democracy Working 
out its Results, 1816-1840. 

General Significance. — We now enter upon the last 
phase of the relationship of nationality and democracy as 
an organizing idea. The collisions and cooperations be- 
tween these two mighty forces had worn down the differ- 
ences separating them so that they now practically moved 
in harmony. The most fundamental result of this fusion 
as it worked itself out in national affairs has been the 
deep and abiding interest taken by the common people. 
In this phase, for the first time in American history, they 



192 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

actually came into possession of the machinery of the 
national government. Heretofore they had been led ; now 
they took the lead or furnished leaders. The tendency 
toward an aristocracy of office-holders now began to dis- 
appear, and new and untried men from among the common 
people came to the front. No doubt the grade of Ameri- 
can statesmanship was lowered by the introduction of so 
much inexperience, but the thorough nationalization of the 
common people was a result of immeasurable consequence 
to our country in the day of its greatest trial. No one 
can tell what the result might have been in the conflict 
with slavery had not the common people come to feel that 
their fate was bound up with that of the nation ; that its 
enemy was their foe, and its helper their friend. The 
enthusiasm of the masses for the nation grew into full 
consciousness during this era. 

Significance of Jackson's Election. — Old things were 
passing away and all things were becoming new. In 
nothing is the change so evident as in the campaign which 
elected Jackson in 1828. Some of its methods and char- 
acteristics were foreshadowed in the contest of 1824. 
The following brief statements will further aid in 
reaching a correct interpretation of the campaign as 
a whole. 

1. On the part of Jackson's followers the contest opened 
immediately after the election of Adams, and was, there- 
fore, nearly four years in length. The nominating caucus 
was gone, and a more popular method was instituted for 
getting Jackson before the people. The first step his man- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 193 

agers took was to get him recommended to the people by 
the legislature of Tennessee in 1825, when Jackson imme- 
diately resigned from the senate. By means of correspond- 
ence, public meetings were held to endorse this action ; the 
most notable was in Philadelphia in 1826. The apparent 
spontaneity of the movement is shown by the frequent and 
pressing invitations to Jackson to address all sorts of bodies 
in all parts of the country. In 1827 the legislature of 
Louisiana invited him to join with the people in celebration 
of the victory of New Orleans. Delegations from distant 
states united to make this the greatest popular demon- 
stration yet held in America. In 1828 popular enthusiasm 
took up Jackson's cause, and erected, with appropriate 
exercises, hickory poles in many parts of the nation to 
testify their appreciation of his peculiar character. The 
above methods were in themselves telling arguments ad- 
dressed to the imagination and feeling of the masses. 
These brought General Jackson before the people and 
created a personal interest in him such as they had taken 
only in their favorite sons in 1824. In the course of this 
campaign, papers sprung into existence for the special pur- 
pose of promoting Jackson's candidacy. In congress the 
opposition organized to obstruct every movement and 
measure of Adams' administration. They aimed to dis- 
credit him in the eyes of the nation. The student will 
readily see that these are methods of campaigning not here- 
tofore in use, and though not of the highest order, yet cal- 
culated to win the populace. 

2. The arguments of the campaign were new and carried 



194 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

tremendous meaning. In the first place, they did not bear 
on the relative statesmanship of Jackson and Adams. 
Perhaps the first argument used in the campaign was 
that Jackson had been cheated out of the presidency by 
a corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay. There was 
no truth in the charge as was demonstrated, but Jackson 
and his campaigners never ceased to reiterate the story, 
and no doubt it was believed by hundreds of thousands of 
small-minded people. A second reason urged in favor of 
Jackson was that congress had violated the democratic 
spirit in electing Adams. Jackson had received a larger 
vote, both popular and electoral, than any other candidate. 
This, said Jackson men, should have determined the 
matter. The significance of this argument lies in its con- 
trast with the way Jefferson and his followers would have 
argued. They would have said there are two modes of 
electing a president ; the Constitution does not even suggest 
that the results of one mode shall determine the result for 
the other. But Jacksonian democracy exalts the temporary 
opinion of the people above the Constitution, and there- 
fore throws strict construction to the winds. The meaning 
of this with reference to nationalization is very clear when 
we recall that the method by which Adams was elected is 
the very essence of state sovereignty itself ; a cardinal doc- 
trine of the Confederation period and of the Jeffersonian 
democracy was the equality of the states. Perhaps the 
most effective argument with the masses was that General 
Jackson himself was a man sprung from their own class, 
while President Adams and his supporters were a different 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 195 

sort of people altogether, and had little or nothing in 
common with them. Adams and Clay in particular, they 
held, belonged to a sort of office-holding aristocracy that 
had aimed to perpetuate itself by the congressional caucus, 
the succession of secretaries, limited suffrage, and the 
legislative election of the electoral college. By these 
methods the great body of citizens were kept from exert- 
ing their legitimate influence on the nation's policy. On 
the other hand, they said, General Jackson is supported by 
the people and is one of them ; so he was born, so he was 
reared, and such has been his career. In his military 
capacity he has ever been the friend and the idol of the 
common soldiers ; he shared their hardships on the march 
and in the camp, and in battle was their leader. We, 
therefore, want him for our president ; he will indeed be 
the people's president, and will use the government for 
their good. There was much truth and some error in this 
sort of argument, but the significant thing is that the plain 
people of the West and South, in portions of the middle 
states, and the artisans in the large cities were powerfully 
taken by such appeals. They longed to see themselves, in 
the person of Andrew Jackson, in possession of the great 
office, and the result was in harmony with their feelings, 
for Jackson received nearly a hundred more electoral votes 
than Adams. No doubt the unselfish resolution of Adams 
to make no effort in his own behalf, especially by the use 
of patronage, contributed to Jackson's majority. By 1828 
the non-democratic elements in the southern states had 
begun to desert the National Republicans ; but it is very 



196 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

apparent that the campaign as a whole indicates the com- 
ing supremacy of the people. 

Jackson's Rule Interpreted. — This has been done partly, 
since the campaign aided in determining the lines of 
administration. The method and details were partly 
determined by the men composing the administration. 
The cabinet contained no man of statesmanlike ability, 
with the possible exception of Van Buren. Jackson domi- 
nated it completely, and directed its work with the same 
vigor and despatch as he had conducted Indian campaigns ; 
he was the administration. In addition to his military 
spirit, Jackson possessed, in an intensified way, the 
strength and weakness of -a frontier farmer. He recog- 
nized but two classes of men, — friends and enemies ; 
these were always personal and never political. He felt 
that men of wealth had been favored by the government ; 
the plain people, the farmers and the artisans, had been 
neglected, and now their time had come. In trying to get 
at the true meaning of the events and measures of this 
administration, as little attention as possible will be given 
to details. 

1. The inauguration was simply a continuation of the 
campaign ; the noisy demonstrations attending the event 
proved that the people came to see themselves inaugurated. 
No such scenes, no such crowds, and no such people had 
ever before been drawn to witness the ceremonies. One 
compared it to the invasion of Eome by the Goths and 
Vandals, another to the reign of King Mob, and Webster 
said the crowd acted as if they thought the country had 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 197 

been "rescued from some dreadful danger." It was signifi- 
cant that nearly all the Jackson editors in the country 
were there. 

2. The wholesale removals from office was the first 
startling event. Spoilsmen in and out of the cabinet no 
doubt hastened it, but it had to come, for it was the logic 
of events as interpreted by the president. He plainly 
said, and more deeply felt, that the demonstration of 
public sentiment in the election imposed upon him the 
duty of reforming the federal patronage. In view of prin- 
ciples controlling all his predecessors, especially the retir- 
ing executive, and in view of the tendency of the campaign 
just closed, reform of patronage could mean but one thing, 
— the substitution of the friends of the administration and 
of the people for those in office. The immediate and dis- 
astrous consequences to individuals and to the service 
were either not seen or not appreciated. About the only 
good result of the new departure was to interest the 
common people more thoroughly in national affairs, and 
thus give them a fuller appreciation of the way in which 
the nation is related to them. The basis of this interest 
may have been selfish, but it had to have a beginning ; that 
it rose above the mere greed of office and partisan success 
is well attested by the sacrifices made by the people to 
save the nation in 1861. What if they had not been edu- 
cated into an affection for the nation by a generation of 
political experience ? However, it began to appear that 
no national movement, where numbers count, can ever be 
successful without the backing of the new democracy. 



198 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

3. In his message to congress in December of 1829, 
Jackson opened his long fight against the United States 
Bank. Whether he thus early believed the bank guilty 
of participating in politics, or whether he conceived a dis- 
like for the president of the bank for his independent and 
courageous defence of it, it is significant that Jackson said 
it was " considered unconstitutional by a large portion of 
our fellow-citizens." The Supreme Court had decided it 
constitutional, but that did not matter since the highest 
court — the people — thought it unconstitutional. This 
sounds like the claim made by Jackson's friends when 
congress elected Adams in the face of a plurality of the 
popular vote for Jackson. In this same message, Jackson 
suggested a national bank, presumably under the control 
of the treasury department, and thus subject to the new 
tribunal, — the people. In his message to congress in 1831, 
Jackson said he had disclosed his opinions concerning the 
bank, " in order that the attention of the legislature and 
the people " should be called to it, and now proposed " to 
leave it for the present to the investigation of an enlight- 
ened people and their representatives." This repeated 
reference to the people is most significant. Benton con- 
fesses that the opponents of the bank in congress aimed 
by their method of attack to "rouse the people, and pre- 
pare them to sustain the veto." Among other things the 
veto said : " But when the laws undertake to add . . . 
artificial distinction, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclu- 
sive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent 
more powerful, the humble members of society, the farmers, 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 199 

mechanics, and laborers, . . . have a right to complain of 
the injustice of their government. ... If sustained by 
my fellow-citizens I shall be grateful and happy. . . ." 

4. The campaign of 1832 was, in its methods, an evolu- 
tion of that of 1828, and in its issues, mainly a continuation 
of the bank controversy. Jackson had already recom- 
mended amending the Constitution to secure the election 
of the president by a direct vote of the people, and to 
make him ineligible for reelection. But it did not take 
much manceuvering to produce a " spontaneous " demand 
for his reelection. A suggestion was now offered that 
Jackson be nominated at a great national convention of the 
party. This brought the selection of president one step 
nearer the people, and was so in harmony with the spirit 
of the times that all three parties held nominating conven- 
tions. This campaign gained a still deeper hold on the 
feelings of the people. There were day parades with fife, 
drum, and banners, night demonstrations with torchlight 
processions and transparencies, pole-raisings, speeches, 
banquets, pamphlets, cartoons, and other features of later- 
day campaigns. In originating this sort of political argu- 
ment the Democrats far excelled the Whigs. The defeat 
of Clay and the bank was overwhelming, the electoral vote 
being 219 to 49 in favor of Jackson. The new court had 
rendered another decision, and Jackson carried an order 
for the bank's annihilation. His message in December, 
1832, questioned the safety of the national deposits, and 
said that rumors, widely current, called for an investiga- 
tion. The investigation exonerated the bank, congress 



200 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

gave it a vote of confidence, but the president ordered the 
deposits removed, in 1833, to certain state banks. To a 
secretary opposing the removal, the president said : " My 
object is to save the country ; it will be lost if we permit 
the bank to exist." The bank began to prepare for the 
end by contracting its loans, and the beginnings of finan- 
cial disaster were at hand. 

5. The number of state banks rapidly increased, creating 
greater competition for national deposits. Congress passed 
an act in 1836 depositing the surplus revenue with the 
states, subject to recall. Money was thus placed where 
the people could get it easily; speculation followed ; 
prices, exeept of public land which was fixed by law, rose 
rapidly. Hence everybody wished to buy government 
land to hold for speculation. Thousands of depreciated 
state-bank notes were received in payment for public land ; 
Jackson became alarmed, and in July, 1836, issued the 
circular ordering that specie alone be accepted for land. 
Gold and silver moved westward, paper money eastward ; 
business was disturbed, and confidence undermined. In 
the spring of 1837 the crash came. 1 Jackson was just 
retiring from the presidency, but was yet the real leader 
of his party. The rank and file were every now and then 
to hear the old leader's voice speaking through Van Buren. 

1 This is not intended as an adequate explanation of the extent and 
character of the speculation which took hold of individuals, corpora- 
tions, and states alike. It does not assume to state all the causes of 
the explosion, but rather indicates the part which popular sentiment, 
—the conscious power behind the throne, — acting on congress and 
the administration, played in the management of the national finances, 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 201 

6. Although the new administration posed as a mere 
continuation of the preceding one, had the election been 
postponed a year even, the name of Jackson could hardly 
have carried the day. As it was, the popular and electoral 
vote were both much reduced. Between 1837 and 1840 
the people began to distrust the leaders who brought such 
distress upon the nation. Perhaps they did not recall 
that, in the main, these leaders had reflected the people's 
wishes in financial matters. The administration was 
further separated from the masses who followed Jackson 
by refusing the relief which public sentiment felt it could 
furnish, especially the repeal of the specie circular. Van 
Buren's great remedy, the Independent Treasury, did. not 
strongly appeal to popular favor ; it was preventive rather 
than curative, while the removal of present distress was 
the popular demand. The measure brought no immediate 
support to the administration, for it was generally viewed 
as a selfish desertion of the country by the government. 

The Campaign of 1840. — The significance of this extra- 
ordinary campaign lies largely in the fact that the Whig 
party greatly developed the Jacksonian methods of stirring 
popular enthusiasm. While this party was far less aristo- 
cratic and conservative than the old Federalist, yet, as a 
rule, it was not nearly so popular in its make-up and 
measures as its rival. However, in this presidential con- 
test it obtained so tremendous a hold on popular favor that 
it promised for a time to become the real people's party. 

The intense distress produced by the panic, and the 
apparently indifferent attitude of the administration con- 



202 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

cerning measures of relief, created dissatisfaction among 
the rank and file of the Democratic party. They had 
been taught to believe in the nation's ability to do well or 
ill by the people. The contrast between Van Buren and 
Harrison went far toward Whig success. It was not 
unlike that between Adams and Jackson in 1828. Harri- 
son was the honest western farmer and courageous frontier 
soldier; Van Buren was the eastern politician, and had 
always held office ; Harrison was one of the people, having 
their ideas and feelings, and could be trusted to serve 
them ; Van Buren was the " little aristocrat," lived in 
grand style at Washington, and had forgotten the lessons 
of Jefferson and Jackson. A popular campaign speech 
pictured the White House as a royal palace and its occu- 
pants feasting as Caesars. The tables in the banquet halls 
were described with elaborate detail before the gaping 
multitude. But Harrison, the man of the people, was 
a product of the log cabin with its plain and frugal life. 

In 1837 the Ohio Whig convention nominated Harrison, 
as in 1825 the legislature of Tennessee named Jackson, 
and, like him, Harrison began to be pressed by invitations. 
In 1838 he visited Indiana, the scene of his great victory 
over the Indians in 1811, and set the people on fire. 
Clubs and battle anniversaries became the order of the 
day, till the national Whig convention named him in pref- 
erence to Clay, Webster, or Scott. And now began in 
earnest a contest, by the side of which the campaign of 
1832 pales into insignificance. Such crowds ! Such pro- 
cessions ! Such enthusiasm ! The Harrison demonstra- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 203 

tions numbered all the way from a few to a hundred 
thousand. People traveled hundreds of miles to be pres- 
ent on such occasions, and processions were days upon the 
road./ The log cabin with its latch string out, the raccoon, 
the barrel of cider on tap, the rolling ball, and the roasted 
ox played leading parts in rousing popular enthusiasm. 
To these were added, for the first time, " taking " cam- 
paign songs, which were widely employed in stimulating 
patriotic and partisan zeal. In all this the Whigs far 
excelled the Democrats, as the election demonstrated. 
Nineteen states voted for Harrison and seven for Van 
Buren, while the electoral vote was 234 to 60 in favor of 
the Whigs. 

The joy of the people was unbounded at finding them- 
selves once more in possession of their own. The Whig- 
statesmen now spoke with the same authority as did Jack- 
son in 1828 and 1832. Listen to Clay as he speaks to the 
Senate in December, 1840, on the repeal of the independ- 
ent-treasury bill : " The nation wills the repeal of the 
measure, the nation decrees the repeal of the measure, 
and the nation commands the repeal of the measure, and 
the representatives of nineteen states were sent here 
instructed to repeal it." This reveals the immense dis- 
tance separating the new from the old Federalism, and 
how completely nationality has identified itself with 
democracy, just as Jackson proved the close identity of 
democracy and nationality. 

An Era of National Pride. — The vast expenditure of 
energy during this period was not confined to political and 



204 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

economic problems. From the organization of the govern- 
ment the American people had been under the spell of 
intense activity. The marvelous results wrought out 
caused a corresponding elevation of national pride. No 
doubt much of this feeling was shallow and bombastic; 
but on the whole, it was based on solid achievement. We 
were becoming proud of our past, and were not insensible 
to the fact that foreigners were beginning to notice our 
people and their institutions. Conscious of great things 
already achieved, and of the possibility of still greater 
achievements, Americans in this age hotly resented the 
one-sided criticism of foreigners like Dickens and Trollope. 
Perhaps nothing, in a quiet way, made Americans prouder 
of their nation than its long list of celebrated names. 
Besides the revolutionary celebrities, the last of whom 
were rapidly passing away, and the military and naval 
heroes of 1812, the imaginations and hearts of the people 
were filled by the splendid abilities of the statesmen who 
still moved in their midst. But the list included more 
than warriors and statesmen ; men were now springing 
into prominence in every field of activity. Longfellow, 
Whittier, and Holmes were joining Irving, Cooper, and 
Bryant in the field of literature, and Bancroft, our first 
great historian, was beginning his herculean labors; while 
Webster's Dictionary was already raising the standard of 
national speech. Emerson was a rising philosopher and 
poet whose American pride rebelled against the worship 
of European formalism and tradition. Kent and Story 
were occupying the field of jurisprudence with masterly 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONALITY. 205 

pens, and writers upon economics and political science 
were coming forward. Science was beginning to count 
some great names among eastern institutions, and already- 
one polar expedition had done its work and returned with 
its story of adventure and discovery. In the field of 
journalism activity and success were even more marked. 
Now came into existence those mighty engines of public 
opinion, — the great metropolitan newspapers. They were 
much like the politicians of the era in that they tried 
to reflect the life of the people. Therefore they became 
really newsy papers, and at first, selling at a penny, their 
circulation increased enormously. In New York city the 
Sun, the Herald, and the Tribune set the fashion of the 
new departure. Before this advent political opinion had 
been largely molded by the party organ located at Wash- 
ington city, and dependent for its existence on administra- 
tive favors ; but the new paper is more independent, 
resting on the public for support, dictating policies and 
measures for the administration. 

These mighty forces were producing a body of common 
thought and sentiment, creating a solidarity of interests 
in all sections and among all classes that even slavery 
could not destroy. Such was the function of the period 
from 1789 to 1840, and such was the result. Many facts 
touching this result could not be discussed. Important 
among these were the extension of suffrage, the growth 
of the government's land policy, increase of immigration, 
party organization, increase of inventions, and the diffu- 
sion of wealth. 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY, 1820-1870. 



Development of the Conflict, 1820-1835. 

Origin of the Struggle. — The mutual conquest of 
nationality and democracy reached its fruition between 
1820 and 1840. Had not slavery blocked the way, these 
two mighty forces, now made one, would have carried the 
nation rapidly forward to that greatness attained only in 
our day. The new struggle differs from the old in that it 
is a struggle to the death, and although compromises are 
made, they only postpone the fatal day. 

The earliest struggle of far-reaching importance occurred 
in the constitutional convention. It arose over questions 
of representation, direct taxation, and commerce. The 
immediate cause was the fact that the slave states had a 
smaller white population than the free states, and hence 
would be in a minority in the lower house of congress. 
But why ? Did not the slave states have a richer soil and 
a more genial climate than the free states ? Slavery was 
hostile to population ; it occupied vast estates, built few 
towns, encouraged but one occupation, — agriculture, — 
brought the white laborer into competition with labor con- 
suming the coarsest food and clothes, built no public 
schools, and put a social ban upon the non-slaveholder. 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVEHY. 207 

For these reasons there was a tendency, in early times, to 
avoid the South, and even leave it for the North. The 
tendency became a movement only in this century. After 
a fierce battle the convention agreed to count three-fifths 
of the slave population for both congressmen and direct 
taxes. The South was predominantly agricultural, and, 
because of slavery, had only a narrow range of agriculture. 
The South feared commercial restrictions by the North, and 
the latter opposed the African slave-trade. The spirit in 
which these contests were waged is seen in the repeated 
threats of delegates from the Carolinas and Georgia to 
disrupt the convention and defeat the Constitution. 

The weakness which forced slavery to fight in self- 
defence, and the spirit in which it conducted the contest, 
constitute the fundamental causes of the struggle between 
nationality and slavery. These inhere in the system itself, 
and from the constitutional convention to the Missouri 
Compromise are operating against slavery. The French 
Revolution and the Napoleonic wars made life burdensome 
to Europeans, and they began to come to America. Where 
did they go ? To the North. At the same time the slender 
stream of non-slaveholders, emigrating north and north- 
westward, was growing wider and deeper. The result of 
this movement of population is seen in the growing differ- 
ence in the number of congressmen from the two sections. 
In 1790 the difference was but four in favor of the North ; 
in 1800 the census showed this to be twelve ; in 1810 it had 
grown to twenty-five ; while by 1820, the period of the 
Missouri conflict, the gulf had widened to forty-three. 



208 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

In spite of the three-fifths advantage, slavery had hope- 
lessly lost power in the House. The inevitable was seen 
approaching, and the battle for' the balance of power had 
long been transferred to the Senate. The states are equal 
here, population counting little. Since 1789 a sort of 
equilibrium had been maintained by the admission of 
states. Seven of the thirteen states were free or becom- 
ing so in 1789, and six were slave. The admission of 
Kentucky, Vermont, and Tennessee established an equi- 
librium. Ohio destroyed it in 1802, and Louisiana re- 
stored it in 1812. Indiana in 1816, Mississippi in 1817, 
Illinois in 1818, and Alabama in 1819 alternately destroyed 
and restored this political equality. But in this last year 
Missouri applied for admission as a slave state. The 
North took the alarm ; it was not slavery's turn, and, if per- 
mitted, would give it a majority of two senators, — enough to 
block legislation and the admission of new states. Besides, 
slavery had encroached geographically upon the North, for 
at least four-fifths of the eastern boundary of this state 
rests against a free state. Further significance is given 
to the Missouri application by remembering that there are 
but two more slave territories, — Arkansas and Florida. 
Aside from the moral questions involved, here are aggres- 
sions that the free states feel must be resisted. Another 
significant fact is that the necessity of this aggressive 
action lies in the defects of slavery itself. 

The spirit in which slavery conducts the controversy 
over Missouri is made clearer by its attitude in the case of 
the early petitions sent to congress against the institution. 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 209 

These were generally, in Washington's administration, pre- 
sented by Quakers, requesting congress to use its constitu- 
tional powers to place some restriction on slavery. The 
spirit of the institution is revealed in the following argu- 
ments in its defence: 1. The Quakers were denounced as 
hypocrites and cowards. 2. The petitions were uncon- 
stitutional, because violating guarantees on which the 
South ratified the Constitution. 3. Emancipation was a 
curse, and would lead to civil war. 4. The Bible and the 
southern clergy were not opposed to slavery. 5. The 
South could be cultivated by negroes only. 6. The 
slave-trade was a benefit to the negro. The language 
was more intemperate even than the arguments, and 
both were repeated in all the conflicts between 1820 and 
I860. 1 

1 The slaveholder was a product of his environment, and a different 
product would not have resulted if the people of the North had been 
inhabitants of the South from colonial days. The spirit born of the 
system is well stated by Jefferson: "There must doubtless be an un- 
happy influence on the manners of our people, produced by the exist- 
ence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and 
slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most 
unremitting despotism on the one part and degrading submission on 
the other. Our children see this and learn to imitate it. . . . If a 
parent could find no motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love 
for restraining the intemperance of his passion toward his slave, it 
should be a sufficient one that his child looks on, catches the linea- 
ments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, 
gives a loose rein to the worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, 
and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it." — 
Notes on the State of Virginia, pp. 169-170. 



210 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Meaning of the Missouri Struggle. 1 — The content of 
this event has been partly indicated. The effect on public 
sentiment remains to be noted. This will be best under- 
stood in the light of the characterizing features of the 
event. The fight opened by proposing to prohibit the 
further carrying of slaves into Missouri, and to free all its 
future-born slaves upon reaching the age of twenty-five. 
The conflict lasted two years and excited the earnest 
attention of both sections. Another feature of significance 
is found in the depth of thought and passion stirred. 
Feeling ran high in congress, and wild scenes were enacted ; 
resistance was hinted, civil war was prophesied, and 
threats of secession were frequently made. The public 
participated in the excitement ; meetings were held in 
town and city; county and state conventions, grand juries 
and legislatures joined in resolutions and protests. North- 
ern congressmen, in some instances, were burned in effigy 
by their irate constituents. Others had to explain or 
defend their votes. 

The effects of the battle may be summarized about as 
follows: 1. The South gained Missouri, but Maine was 
admitted, thus preserving the balance of power in the. 
Senate. 2. The South lost all territory north of the 
southern boundary line of Missouri, thus apparently 

1 Aside from the congressional debates, one of the best summaries 
of the arguments presented is found in Von Hoist, vol. i. pp. 358-370. 
Schurz' Clay, vol. i. pp. 192-200, gives an interesting interpretation of 
the event. McMaster, vol. iv. pp. 570-000, shows the manifestations 
of popular sentiment over the affair. 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 211 

cramping herself beyond recovery. 3. The compromise, 
in effect, decided that congress could prohibit slavery in 
territories, thus establishing the principle of the future 
Free Soil platform. 4. The South learned that the weak 
point in the North's armor was the fear of a dissolution of 
the Union. 5. Threats of disunion carried ominous mean- 
ing because both sections began to be conscious of the deep 
differences separating them. Patriotic men like Jefferson 
and Clay were profoundly alarmed over the situation ; but 
after the end came, public interest and excitement quickly 
disappeared. There was yet no consciousness of an irre- 
pressible conflict. 6. The progress of pro-slavery senti- 
ment in the South since 1787 is seen in the fact that no 
anti-slavery advocate appeared among her congressmen, 
while Virginia delegates in the constitutional convention 
and others were not friends to slavery. 

Slavery Nullifies the Tariff. — The significance of the 
contest between the nation and South Carolina is found in 
the above heading. With reference to its causes and 
motives, nullification was primarily an economic and social 
event; secondarily, a political one. The people generally 
looked upon it as merely a factional opposition to escape 
the payment of the tariff. Some believed the tariff only 
an excuse, and that the assertion and execution of the 
doctrine of nullification was the real motive of the leaders. 
A small number have looked upon it as a struggle between 
leaders of factions in the Democratic party. These are 
superficial interpretations of the events and circumstances 
making up the situation. 



212 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

The disappearance from the South of opposition to 
slavery and the rise of a strong pro-slavery sentiment 
were due to the vast development of the cotton industry 
during the first quarter of this century. English invention 
had aided in creating a demand for cotton; Whitney's gin 
enabled the South to meet that demand. These new con- 
ditions gave slavery a fresh lease of life by making it 
profitable. It must be noted that the growth was mainly 
along old lines, — merely an expansion of southern agricul- 
ture. In this period no new industries were born in the 
South, and she failed to diversify and render American 
industry independent of European competition. The in- 
ability of slavery to profit by the tariff was not apparent 
to southern leaders in 1816, for Calhoun, among others, 
was then a warm advocate of it. The experiment with 
protection from 1816 to 1828 revealed to leading thinkers 
of the South the startling fact that slavery was not only 
unable to take advantage of the tariff, but was, as they 
thought, greatly injured by it. Very few men from the 
cotton states voted for protection in 1824 and 1828 ; but 
in spite of this opposition, the tariff gradually rose till the 
climax was reached in 1828. 

The cry arose, How can the South protect her industrial 
system? This question ought to be translated to read: 
How can slavery be extricated from the position in which 
it has placed itself ? In searching for a shield for slavery 
and its interests, it was found in the old dogma of state 
sovereignty, which had done service in former days for 
both Eepublicans and Federalists. The theory of the 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 213 

Kentucky and Virginia resolutions was now to receive a 
new interpretation. Calhoun elaborated this doctrine for 
his people by his famous " South Carolina Exposition " in 
1828. He pointed out a supposed permanent dissimilarity 
between the " staple states " and the remainder of the 
nation. This rests, he held, on differences in soil, climate, 
habits, and peculiar labor. 1 The remedy against legisla- 
tion injurious to these interests is a veto of it by the state. 
The next step in the process was the Webster-Hayne debate 
in 1830. Hayne promulgated in congress the doctrine of 
state sovereignty, with its accompanying compact theory 
of the national Constitution, and nullification as a rightful 
and peaceable remedy. Hayne spoke for the past, for 
slavery was of the past. Webster's argument embodied 
all the mighty evolution of national life, both actual and 
potential. He spoke for the future, for nationality was 
of the future. To casual observers this seemed a repetition 
of the old struggle between nationality and state sov- 
ereignty, but was fundamentally a hand-to-hand combat 
between nationality and slavery. The next move was to 
commit Jackson to the new movement by surrounding him 
with a nullification atmosphere at the Jefferson banquet; 
but his volunteer toast, "The federal Union, it must be 

1 This statement was generally accepted then, and is of ten believed 
true now ; but it is easy to see that slavery alone put the South in a 
position where it could not profit by the national policy of protection. 
Soil, climate, and natural products alone would not have created 
dissimilar and conflicting interests. The proof of this is found in the 
development of diversified industries in the South to-day. 



214 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

preserved/' was the end of their hopes. Disappointed in 
Jackson, Calhoun issued "An Appeal to the People of South 
Carolina/' in July, 1831, in which he restated, in stronger 
terms and with more elaboration than in the " Exposition," 
the doctrines of nullification. In and out of congress it was 
felt that a crisis could be avoided only by a reduction of 
the tariff. This was done in 1832, but the principle of 
protection was preserved. Once more the great leader 
seized his pen, and emphasized the right of the state to 
nullify an act of congress deemed injurious to its interests. 
The legislature called a state convention, and in Novem- 
ber of 1832 the famous ordinance was passed nullifying 
the tariffs of 1828 and 1832. Provisions were made for 
executing the decree by force, if necessary. Jackson 
promptly issued his great proclamation demolishing the 
doctrine of nullification, and declaring his resolution to 
enforce the laws of the nation. Clay's compromise tariff 
probably prevented a collision between the state and 
national forces. The great bulk of the nation, irrespec- 
tive of party, applauded the president. State legislatures 
promptly condemned the conduct of South Carolina. Nulli- 
fication as a peaceful remedy was discredited ; it could be 
applied only at the point of the bayonet. Nationality was 
strengthened in Jackson's party, especially in the North 
and West. In the midst of the noise and excitement, few 
persons saw slavery masquerading in the disguise of state 
sovereignty. Fewer still saw that the compromise did not 
go to the root of the matter, and that the real cause of the 
trouble was still operative. 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 215 

Meaning of the Movement for Texas. — This is the 
old question in a new form : How can slavery escape its 
own ills ? There are two reasons why it must have Texas. 
First, the wear and tear of the system in the old states 
was so enormous that new lands must be had to enable it 
to prosper. Second, the South needed more votes in the 
Senate, especially since the anti-slavery movement was 
growing. The method was simple and the steps few. 
Slaveholders emigrated to Texas for one or both of these 
reasons. Mexico abolished slavery. The American slave- 
holders in Texas refused to submit, raised the standard of 
revolt, issued a declaration of independence, and defeated 
the Mexicans by the aid of citizens of the United States, 
who forwarded both munitions and men. Mexico refused 
to ratify Texan independence which Sam Houston wrung 
from Santa Anna at San Jacinto in 1835. A government 
was organized and application made for admission to the 
United States. Jackson and the South favored the appli- 
cation, but feared northern sentiment. Petitions from the 
North, poured in on congress against annexation. The 
South tried to make it a national question by arguing 
for an extension of the national domain; calling for its 
" reannexation," asserting it was once a part of the Louis- 
iana purchase and needlessly given up ; appealing to preju- 
dice against England, which was represented as intriguing 
with the new republic. 

In spite of all these reasons, opposition at the North 
steadily grew, and forced the postponement of annexation 
during the administration of Van Buren and the greater 



216 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

part of Tyler's. When annexation did come in 1845, the 
two sections were gradually becoming conscious of a grow- 
ing contrariety of interests. From this time on, if not 
from an earlier date, every question of importance was 
viewed by the American people in its relation to slavery. 
The process of sectionalization has begun in earnest. 

The Growth of Sectionalization, 1835-1860. 

The Process already Begun. — The beginnings of new 
movements frequently find their opportunity at the point 
of triumph of older movements. In the decade from 1830 
to 1840, democracy and nationality triumphed together. 
While these two forces were reveling in their mutual vic- 
tory, sectionalization was already raising its head. 

We have already discovered that the active and aggres- 
sive cause of this movement was an inherent weakness in 
slavery itself ; that an attempt to overcome this led to the 
political and economical conflicts over the admission of 
Missouri, the nullification of the tariff, and the annexation 
of Texas ; and that slavery sought out state sovereignty as 
its shield of defence. This forced the nation and the sec- 
tion into conflict. 

The above contests gave opportunity to the opponents of 
slavery on moral and religious grounds. This old enemy 
slavery affected to despise, but it was the most dangerous of 
all, because not influenced by political considerations, and 
was likely to be most persistent and radical. The proof 
that both sections were becoming conscious of increasing 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 217 

differences of interests and ideas is found in the following 
points : 

1. It is revealed in speeches of leading men. John 
Quincy Adams on annexation : " Your trial is approaching. 
The spirit of freedom and the spirit of slavery are drawing 
together for a deadly conflict of arms. . . . Young men of 
Boston, burnish up your armor and prepare for the con- 
flict." Jackson pronounced this " a direct appeal to arms " 
to oppose the annexation of Texas. Several, in speaking 
on the subject, said : "To increase the slaveholding power 
is to subvert the Constitution : to give a fearful prepon- 
derance which may, and probably will, be speedily followed 
by demands to which the democratic free-labor states can- 
not yield, and the denial of which will be made the 
ground of secession, nullification, and disunion." The 
South Carolinian in 1844 said : " This question absorbs all 
others. . . . Whigs and Democrats drop all their old party 
differences and unite on it like brothers. . . . This is a 
question not of party, but of country, and to the South one 
of absolute self-preservation. . . . The only hope of the 
South is in herself." Similar sentiments are found in a 
few other papers. A call for a convention of the friends 
of annexation was issued by these papers. Their motto 
was : " Texas with, or Texas without, the Union." The 
idea of a convention of slave states was born, but did not 
materialize. 

2. The movement toward sectionalization is seen again 
in the rapid rise at the North of anti-slavery sentiment, 
which, in its aggressive beginning, ran parallel to the 



218 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

attempt of the South, to beat down the tariff, and maintain 
its supremacy in the Senate by seizing and annexing Texas. 
Lundy, with his Genius of Universal Emancipation, and 
Garrison, with his Liberator, had prepared the way for the 
organization of the enemies of slavery into the American 
Anti-Slavery Society (1833). From now on, this organiza- 
tion, with an increasing number of state societies, demanded 
the abolition of slavery. To this end it tried to educate 
public sentiment in many ways, but most effectively by 
pouring petitions into congress against the slave-trade, 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and the annexation of 
Texas. The success of annexation led to a rapid decline of 
the anti-slavery opposition based on political consideration, 
but it left in the North a very great increase in the num- 
ber of determined abolitionists. 

3. A third evidence of the progress of this anti-national 
process is found in the congressional battle over the right 
of petition. From Washington's administration, the slave- 
holders showed much sensitiveness over petitions relating 
to slavery. Now they gave an enormous impulse to the 
anti-slavery cause by refusing any sort of hearing to such 
appeals. This made anti-slavery men into abolitionists, 
thoughtful men into enemies of slavery, and indifferent 
men into thoughtful ones. The increase of anti-slavery 
petitions led to the passage of the gag resolutions as a 
means of suppressing them ; but the rising tide of opposition, 
led by John Quincy Adams, finally beat down this barrier 
in 1844. Not only did the North hate slavery more for 
its willingness to override the most sacred constitutional 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 219 

rights, but also because it exhibited almost unbearable in- 
tolerance toward the old hero who waged the battle against 
its aggression. 

4. In 1840 a new party — the Liberty — was born, and 
cast nearly seven thousand votes for abolition. In 1844 
its vote ran up to over sixty thousand, being joined this 
year by several thousand anti-slavery Whigs. This vote 
defeated Henry Clay for the presidency. The feeling 
which led several thousand Whigs in New York to ignore 
party ties and vote against the idol of the party is most 
significant indeed. 

5. In no sphere of activity was the tendency toward 
denationalization stronger than in the church. One cause 
of the dissensions among the Presbyterians in 1838 was 
the growing divergence of opinion on slavery. A battle 
over slavery was fought in the Methodist Church, resulting 
in its dismemberment by the secession of the southern 
conferences in 1844. Men, both North and South, saw 
that it portended the dissolution of the Union. In this 
same period the Baptist Church was also rent by the 
slavery question. Thus were the interests and feelings of 
the two sections moving away from each other, and making 
it more impossible each year for the people to act as a 
nation on questions immediately, or even remotely, con- 
nected with slavery. The wedge of separation, driven by 
the blows of slavery, had entered the Union. 

Motive and Results of the Mexican War. — Slavery 
had annexed Texas, but was not satisfied ; its ambition 
had grown with its opportunity, and was not to stop short 



220 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

of the Pacific Ocean as its western limit. Two things 
opened the way : several million dollars of fraudulent 
claims against Mexico. Slavery saw in these an opportu- 
nity for possessions far more extensive than Texas. Why 
negotiate for peace when war promised unlimited expan- 
sion of slavery to the westward ? The diplomatic corre- 
spondence and the conduct of the governmental agents of 
the United States show slavery's determination to have 
California by peace or war. The order which sent Ameri- 
can troops into the disputed territory furnishes additional 
proof of this, and every victory of the American arms, from 
Palo Alto to Scott's triumphal entry into the Mexican 
capital, meant, in the minds of the promoters of the war, 
more slave territory. 

The masses of the people probably did not understand 
all the relations involved in the war ; they supported it 
mainly from patriotic or military ardor, little conscious 
that their greatest industrial and social enemy was throw- 
ing dust while it sought an impregnable" position in the 
nation. However, the more thoughtful did see the trend 
of things, if not at the opening of the war, during its 
progress. The country was warned by abolitionists ; and 
when the president asked, in 1846, for two millions to aid 
in making peace, eyes were opened, and both Whigs and 
Democrats at the North supported the Wilmot Proviso, 
which proposed to apply to the possible territory the 
clause which excluded slavery from the Northwest Terri- 
tory. Almost without regard to party this measure was 
supported or opposed, and marks an important step in 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 221 

denationalization. While Calhoun had opposed the war 
as dangerous to slavery in the end, now he fought the 
proviso with all the logic of his powerful mind. He 
developed before the Senate the doctrine that congress 
could make no law impairing the right of a citizen to carry 
his property into the territories. This was a new and 
aggressive position, and, if supported by the South, would 
produce a solid North. The Wilmot Proviso was defeated, 
however, by a small majority, on account of votes given by 
those who feared a dissolution of the Union, and those who 
feared no territory at all would be obtained. 

The slaveholders began to say that no friend of the 
Wilmot Proviso could ever be president, while even the 
northern Democrats, particularly in New York, under the 
name of Barnburners, began to break away from their 
southern brethren. This deflection was made formidable 
in 1848, when nearly all anti-slavery factions united on 
Martin Van Buren under the name of Free Soil party. 
They asserted it to be the power and duty of congress to 
protect the territories from slavery. This was embodied 
in their platform — the principle which was to produce a 
completer sectionalization of parties than anything yet 
seen. Calhoun had denied congressional intervention in 
the territories, the Free Soil party had demanded it. On 
the part of the North, this is a reassertion of the doctrine 
of the Ordinance of 1787 touching slavery, the sentiment 
contained in legislative instructions against the admission 
of Missouri as a slave state, and the principle of the 
Wilmot Proviso. It is significant that both of the old 



222 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

parties refused to commit themselves on this point. The 
Democrats nominated a northern man, General Cass, and 
the Whigs a southern man and slaveholder, General Tay- 
lor ; and both ignored slavery as far as possible. This 
only proves that each section feared the defection of the 
other. In spite of this care, Democratic states, like South 
Carolina, threw their votes for the slaveholding "Whig 
rather than for the non-slaveholding Democrat ; Whig 
Ohio gave over sixteen thousand majority for the Demo- 
cratic non-slaveholder, besides over thirty-five thousand 
votes to the Free Soil party; while in Michigan, Taylor's 
vote was less than Clay's in 1844, although the Democratic 
gain in four years was less than three thousand. The 
Free Soil vote in the same time had gained nearly three 
hundred per cent. Calhoun was right in opposing the 
Mexican war, and had his opposition included the move- 
ment for Texas, he might have prevented the rising hos- 
tility of the North. 

How the Discovery of Gold in California Aided in 
Sectionalizing the Nation. — The treaty with Mexico was 
hardly made before gold was discovered in California. 
As the news spread over the nation large numbers started 
for the new land. They forsook all occupations and went 
by all routes : over the mountains, across the Isthmus, 
and around the Cape. In 1849 this hardy population 
organized for statehood. A free-state constitution was 
adopted by the convention without a dissenting vote on 
the prohibition of slavery, and it was ratified by a vast 
majority of the people. The people of the territory had 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 223 

put the substance of the Wilmot Proviso in their constitu- 
tion. Thus, by action of the settlers themselves, slavery 
was deprived of the richest fruit of the war. Why did 
freedom win in the territory acquired for aid by its rival ? 
Slavery, we have seen, was immobile; it had a scanty 
white population, and was tied, as it were, to the soil. 
It had no emigrants to spare, and if it had, they must have 
carried slaves as well as themselves. Therefore California 
was lost by slavery itself. The same old cause forced and 
lost the battle as in the days of the constitutional conven- 
tion, the struggle for Missouri, and in the fight over the 
tariff and nullification. This experience ought to have 
convinced Calhoun that congressional non-intervention 
would not save slavery in the territories. 

The slaveholders were furious over the prospect of not 
only losing the Mexican cessions for slavery, but of its 
being added to freedom's growing power. Great southern 
Whigs like Stephens and Toombs began now to cooperate 
with slaveholding Democrats in resisting this result. 
Eight southern Whigs deserted the caucus of their party 
because it refused to resolve against legislation on the 
subject of slavery. The Free Soilers refused also to 
support the Whig nominee for Speaker. During the three 
weeks' contest over the Speakership, it was no unusual 
thing for southern congressmen to declare that the adop- 
tion of the Wilmot Proviso, or the abolition of slavery in 
the District, would be a sufficient cause of disunion. The 
fear of this caused the North to weaken, and a slaveholder 
was elected Speaker by a few votes. 



224 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

The Compromise of 1850. — This event, as an effect, 
embodies the results flowing from the annexation of Texas 
and the Mexican war. As a phase of public sentiment it 
is the first conscious crisis in the process of sectionalization. 
How the consciousness of this crisis arose and expressed 
itself furnishes the first half of the content of this impor- 
tant event. Had not the conviction that the Union was 
in danger been deeply grounded, no such compromise 
would have been possible. It is not necessary here to 
detail the provisions of the compromise, or explain how 
the bill as such did not pass, while its leading provisions 
became law. 

The struggle in congress was unusually significant. 
The champions of the old order of things were met by 
leaders of a new regime. Clay and Webster stood for the 
Union. This was certainly Clay's dominant motive, and 
the spirit and zeal of his appeals prove the depth of his 
conviction that the Union was in danger from both north- 
ern and southern radicals. Webster was also powerfully 
impelled by the same noble desire in his famous " seventh 
of March speech." Whether his severer strictures upon 
anti-slavery agitators than upon pro-slavery radicals were 
due to his desire to be president rather than to strengthen 
the Union is a disputed question. To these men and to 
most of their followers, the Union had been almost every- 
, thing, and its destruction seemed to threaten chaos. The 
speeches of these two men attracted widespread attention, 
and called hundreds to Washington to hear them. The 
significance of Calhoun's speech was in the emphasis 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 225 

placed upon equal political power between the two sections 
as the condition upon which the South could remain in the 
Union. This was a condition impossible of fulfillment. 
First, because the North would not agree to it. Second, 
because, even if such an agreement was reached, it could 
not be maintained for the reason that it proposed to make 
a minority equal to a majority. Slavery made the South 
a minority section ; in respect to population, industry, 
education, and all that constitutes progressive civilization, 
slavery forced the South into a position of increasing 
inferiority. Every decade would have revealed the grow- 
ing injustice of such a plan of peace. 

In these debates appeared the champions of a new 
cause. Here men like Seward and Chase, having broken 
from the traditions of the old parties on slavery, spoke for 
freedom and the future. Here it was that the former 
announced the " higher law," which constituted his most 
significant utterance. He held that compromises would 
avail nothing, and that slavery should be dealt with for 
the highest good of the people. Seward is the representa- 
tive of an increasing number of northern Whigs; hence 
the alarm of the South at the doctrines announced in his 
speech. This alarm was deepened by the way Webster 
was berated in New England for his part in the great 
debate. 

The passage of the leading measures of the compromise 
seemed to allay agitation for a time. " Union " meetings 
were held in various parts of the nation, at which both 
Whigs and Democrats appeared to promote fraternal rela- 



226 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

tions between the sections. The rising sentiment in the 
South in favor of secession subsided somewhat. A con- 
vention of states was held in Nashville in June, 1850, 
but few representatives were present and little unanimity 
found. The most significant thing was the fact the con- 
vention was held. It met again in November and asserted 
the right of secession, but this represented only radical 
southern opinion, and met no general response. 

Both of the old parties tried hard to support the com- 
promise as a " finality." Resolutions in caucus and before 
congress served rather to divide the Whig party. In 
state conventions the compromise was generally supported, 
and in both the great national conventions of 1852 it 
received renewed pledges of fidelity. But it was felt that 
the Whigs were less in earnest than the Democrats ; many 
southern Whigs, therefore, supported their old opponents. 
The Free Soil vote of 1852 was greatly reduced as com- 
pared with 1848, but was more than double that of 1844. 

The Kansas-Nebraska Bill The overwhelming success 

of the Democrats still added to the delusion that the great 
compromise was a finality; but the South could not forget 
its loss of California nor the North forgive the fugitive- 
slave law. The execution of this law maddened the 
abolitionists, and led states to pass laws which greatly 
limited its efficiency. This conduct was indefensible in a 
legal sense, and was practical nullification. Only moral 
ground — the " higher law " — could be urged in its de- 
fence. The compromise of 1850 applied the principle of 
popular sovereignty to the territories of New Mexico and 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 227 

Utah. This was the doctrine of congressional non-inter- 
vention, leaving, as it did, the question of slavery to be 
determined by the settlers of the territories. 

Early in 1854 Senator Douglas introduced a bill embody- 
ing this idea for the organization of the territory now 
included within Kansas and Nebraska. Not much opposi- 
tion to the application of non-intervention in 1850 was 
made by either section, but now it raised a storm in the 
North which raged till swallowed up by war. The present 
application was to the territory obtained from Louisiana 
and devoted to freedom by the Missouri Compromise, which 
had now stood unassailed for more than a generation. 
While slavery had not asked this favor, its congressmen, 
Whigs as well as Democrats, supported the bill, while half 
the northern Democrats in the House joined the majority 
of northern Whigs in opposition. The bilPs majority was 
only thirteen, — a most significant vote, considering the 
great majority held by the administration. 

The dissolution of parties outside of congress went on 
more rapidly than in congress. In the extreme slave 
states the Whig party rapidly disappeared, while in the 
North anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats coalesced in 
opposition to the agressions of slavery. It seemed to the 
North that slavery, having failed to get possession of 
California, was making a flank movement to possess all 
remaining territory. To the South it appeared entirely 
consistent to apply the principle of non-intervention to all 
territories alike. The process of sectionalizing politics 
was powerfully intensified by the effort of the two sections 



228 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTOKY. 

to get possession of Kansas. Both saw that possession of 
Kansas was a question of numbers, but they did not at 
first see that the North alone could win ; it had the white 
population to spare. The South was cursed by a sparse 
population, and only the slaveholders with their slaves 
could make Kansas a slave state. The Emigrant Aid 
Society was an impossible organization for the South. 
Thus handicapped by the system she would save, her 
leaders were compelled to resort to force and fraud in 
setting up a government. The free-state settlers retaliated 
and civil war broke out. For several years both sections 
were profoundly agitated by the conflict. 

One of the immediate results of the new agitation was 
the formation of the Republican party. It adopted the 
principles and absorbed the membership of the Free Soil 
party ; but the largest contingent was furnished by the 
northern Whigs whose party was practically disbanded. 
The large accessions from the old parties added that 
respectability which comes from numbers and experienced 
leadership. The masses of the voters made the new party 
more popular in its tendency than had been the Whigs. 
The leaders were mainly old Whigs and nationalized 
Democrats, whose views of the Constitution were after the 
school of Hamilton rather than that of Jefferson. The 
new party cast more than a million three hundred thou- 
sand votes two years later (1856), after the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. It would probably have won had 
the Know Nothing party been out of the way with its 
remnant of timid Whigs. The fact of striking significance 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 229 

in the vote is that less than twelve hundred were cast in 
the slave states for Fremont, and these only in the border 
states. Were there only twelve hundred non-slaveholding 
whites in the South who recognized slavery as their great- 
est foe ? Again, the Democratic party lost all the north- 
ern states except New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and 
Illinois, and its total majority in these four states was 
several thousand less than the total vote of the American 
party. When this party disappears, will not its vote leave 
the Democratic party sectionalized as far as majorities are 
concerned ? 

The Dred Scott Decision. — This rising tide of anti- 
slavery sentiment was threatening to overflow all bounds. 
All departments of the government, except the judiciary, 
had been called in and had failed to find the remedy. 
Would not the people's profound regard for the purity 
and dignity of the national judiciary lead them to obey its 
behests on the slavery question ? Would it not be risking 
too much to drag this noble tribunal into the mad swirl of 
sectional politics ? In 1857 the Supreme Court handed 
down a decision to the effect that slavery could not be 
excluded from the territories. The significance of this 
decision lies in several points: 1. The audacity of the 
venture. 2. The apparent purpose of the slave power to 
fasten slavery on Kansas by this means. 3. Its complete 
nullification of the doctrine of popular sovereignty. 4. The 
denial of the Free Soil principles of the Eepublican party, 
thus asserting it to be hostile to the Constitution. 5. Its 
utter denial of the right of slaves to be considered even as 



230 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

citizens in the meaning of the Constitution, and the impli- 
cation " that they had no tights which the white man was 
bound to respect." 6. On account of the inflamed state 
of the public mind, little respect was paid to the decision, 
and the fight in Kansas went rapidly forward. 

The Lincoln-Douglas Debate. — In the course of events, 
both parties in Kansas framed constitutions, set up gov- 
ernments, and applied for admission. The administration 
favored the pro-slavery constitution which had been carried 
by fraud and violence. It was such a travesty on popular 
sovereignty that public sentiment forced many Democrats 
in congress, among them Douglas, to oppose the admission 
of Kansas with a fraudulent slave constitution. This was 
the beginning of a breach in the northern Democracy. 

In 1858 occurred the Lincoln-Douglas debate, an event 
carrying far-reaching consequences. The term of Senator 
Douglas of Illinois was about to expire. He was the idol 
of the northern Democrats, and was admired by many 
opponents for his manly stand against forcing a pro-slavery 
constitution upon Kansas. The Republicans of Illinois 
nominated Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for the 
senatorship. Before the nominating convention, Lincoln 
made his famous house-divided-against-itself speech. 
Douglas immediately attacked this speech with great spirit. 
Lincoln challenged him to public debate before the people 
of Illinois. Seven joint debates were arranged. It was a 
battle royal, and attracted general attention throughout the 
United States. Only one question was discussed — slavery. 
On the first day Douglas set a trap to prove Lincoln an 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 231 

abolitionist ; it consisted of a set of questions so worded 
that each practically answered itself. Lincoln broke the 
force of the questions by his skillful answers, and in turn 
propounded a set of questions which contained two pitfalls, 
into one of which Douglas must fall or refuse to answer 
the questions ; in case he refused, he would really fall into 
both. The pivotal question of the set was : " Can the 
people of a United States territory, in any lawful way, 
against the wish of any citizen of the United States, ex- 
clude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of 
a state constitution?" "It matters not what way the 
Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract 
question whether slavery may or may not go into a terri- 
tory under the Constitution ; the people have the lawful 
means to introduce it or exclude it as they please." This 
answer made Douglas senator again, but lost him the presi- 
dency, as such doctrine was now wormwood and gall to the 
South ; from now on the differences between the northern 
and southern Democracy was irreconcilable. Sectionaliza- 
tion of political feeling in the South now rapidly hastened 
to completion. 

Other Symptoms of the Triumph of Sectionalization. — 
From the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the gulf 
rapidly widened. The following hasten and at the same 
time signify this fact : 1. One or more filibustering expe- 
ditions between 1850 and 1860 were organized to obtain 
more slave soil. Expeditions against the following points 
were either attempted or planned : Cuba, Mexico, and Cen- 
tral America. These expeditions were encouraged by the 



232 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Ostend " manifesto/' which recommended either the pur- 
chase or the conquest of Cuba. Coming as it did from 
the deliberations of the American ministers to Spain, 
France, and England, it had great weight with the South. 
2. Another symptom was the growing conviction that the 
conflict between the North and the South was an irrepres- 
sible one. This idea was formulated by Lincoln in his 
famous Springfield speech, June, 1858, and by Seward in 
his celebrated Rochester speech in October of the same 
year. 1 The universal attention given these speeches 
proves that they accurately diagnosed the situation. 3. 
The most startling of the current symptoms was the John 
Brown raid. He startled the southern people. They fully 
believed that the majority of the North sympathized with 
or aided the expedition. Nothing proves so completely 
the total misunderstanding between the two sections. 4. 
Among the many signs of the rapid sectionalization of 
interests and sentiments may be counted the frequent con- 

1 Lincoln's statement : " f A house divided against itself cannot stand. ' 
I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and 
half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, I do not expect 
the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will 
become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery- 
will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind 
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, 
or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful 
in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South." 

Seward's statement : " They who think that it is accidental, un- 
necessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore 
ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict 
between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United 
States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slave~ 
holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation. " 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 233 

ventions in the South for the discussion of its peculiar 
interests. Such meetings were held at Knoxville, Mont- 
gomery, Vicksburg, and in other places. The reopening of 
the foreign slave-trade was fully discussed and carried in 
the affirmative. The more visionary papers of the South 
saw in this, not only the recovery of the states lost, but the 
universal sway of slavery in the nation. 

The Meaning of the Charleston Convention. — In 1860 
the Democrats met in Charleston, S. C, to nominate a can- 
didate for the presidency. Before the meeting convened 
it was becoming evident that the northern delegates were 
determined to stand by Douglas, while the southern dele- 
gates were just as determined to repudiate him. This 
situation was largely the result of the Lincoln debate. Not 
only the man but his principles had become distasteful and 
dangerous to slavery. Slavery had hailed non-intervention 
and popular sovereignty with every manifestation of ap- 
proval. But the Kansas-Nebraska struggle and Douglas' 
answers to Lincoln's questions had taught that these 
principles in practice gave slavery no hope, and were as 
dangerous as congressional intervention or prohibition. 
Douglas and his platform were of no more service to slavery 
than were Lincoln and his Free Soil platform. This was 
true. But the true reason is found, not in Douglas, but in 
the defects of slavery itself. 

The southern delegates demanded that the convention 
declare, among other things, that neither congress nor the 
territorial legislature has the right to abolish slavery in the 
territories or impair the right of property in slaves, and 



234 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

that it is the duty of the federal government to protect 
the rights of person and property wherever its jurisdiction 
extends. This was a blow aimed at Douglas and his 
northern supporters. The latter knew their constituents 
would resent it and disrupt the party. Holding a major- 
ity, the Douglas delegates rejected the southern demands; 
the latter withdrew and organized a rival convention, 
which subsequently nominated Breckinridge for president, 
thus practically sectionalizing the great Democratic party. 

Douglas' supporters, deeply resenting this disunion, 
called a new convention and nominated their favorite. 
The Republicans named Lincoln; the Constitutional Union 
party, Bell. The result of the canvass was the defeat of 
Douglas and the election of Lincoln. The popular vote 
shows how completely the Union was divided. Out of 
nearly two million votes, the Republicans received a few 
more than twenty-five thousand from the border slave 
states. Douglas, likewise, out of nearly a million three 
hundred thousand, received about one hundred sixty thou- 
sand votes from the slave states. The North cast less 
than one hundred thousand for Breckenridge and about 
eighty thousand for Bell, most of whose vote was southern. 
There were thus practically two northern and two southern 
parties. 

One consequence of the conduct of the Charleston con- 
vention and of the result of the campaign remains to be 
considered. The slaughter of Douglas in the house of 
his friends, and at the hands of those he had so long and 
so faithfully served, was looked upon by his friends as a 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 235 

piece of deepest perfidy. With a courage born of despair, 
Douglas 'fought out the campaign till the " October states " 
showed the certainty of Lincoln's election. He cancelled 
his dates in the North and turned southward. On the 
stump, in private correspondence, and at every opportunity 
he declared for the Union and against secession. On his 
return to congress, while southern states were seceding, 
southern congressmen hurling defiance at the Union in 
parting speeches, and threats of Lincoln's assassination 
were heard in Washington, Douglas stood boldly for the 
Union, and answered seceding congressmen in language 
they could not misunderstand. At Lincoln's inauguration 
Douglas stood near and commended his fearless though 
gentle words. At the inauguration ball he escorted Mrs. 
Lincoln in the presence of the capital's elite, which was 
then largely southern in its sympathies. When Lincoln's 
call to arms went forth, there accompanied it the announce- 
ment of Douglas' enthusiastic support. This was a sum- 
mons to patriotic duty of the million northern voters 
who had just followed him to political defeat. Their time 
had come. On April 25, 1861, occurred a remarkable 
scene in the capital of Illinois. The members of a Repub- 
lican legislature, once his unrelenting enemies, were now, 
in the home of Abraham Lincoln, giving Stephen A. 
Douglas a most enthusiastic ovation, and were hanging on 
his words as if he were a political prophet after their own 
heart. In a little more than a week the country was 
startled by the news of his death. But along with this 
went the description of the deathbed scene, in which the 



236 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

i 

dying patriot appealed to his sons to be true to the Con- 
stitution and the Union. This was regarded as another 
summons to his patriotic followers to respond to their 
country's call. How nobly the War-Democrats kept this 
last appeal history gladly tells. No doubt these last 
events of his life were the noblest of his career and were 
inspired by his love of the Union, although it must be 
admitted that the memory of his treatment at the hands 
of slavery did not cause him to withhold his influence or 
check his enthusiasm for the defence of the nation. Thus 
again did slavery raise up the agents of its own death. 

The Significance of Secession. — The secession conven- 
tions of the rebelling states were the sign, looking back- 
ward, that sectionalization was practically complete ; that 
the interests and feelings of the North endangered the 
existence of slavery. Looking forward, it signified the 
determination of slavery to save itself outside of the 
Union. Secession was not primarily for the purpose of 
vindicating the principle of state sovereignty. It is true 
that the act of secession sought its defence in this doc- 
trine ; the southern leaders often put it forward with much 
show of candor, and no doubt many honest people thought 
the primary purpose of the movement was the defence of 
the old Jeffersonian doctrine. This ostensible motive was 
kept to the front by the method of secession. Frequently 
the governor summoned, by an alarming proclamation, the 
legislature in extra session. Usually this body, after 
providing means for the defence of the state, called a con- 
vention of the people which should pass upon the subject 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 237 

of secession. Thus secession was generally decreed by a 
body of people supposed to possess the attribute of 
sovereignty. The reason for the prominence given to 
state sovereignty is partly explained by the fact that in 
some states many non-slaveholders were unwilling to pro- 
mote the interests of slavery and yet were devoted to state 
sovereignty. Looking forward to the meaning of secession 
as seen in its consequences, we readily see that it involves 
war. While the South was contemplating separation, its 
leaders were preparing for war, and yet they tried to con- 
vince themselves and their people that war would not 
follow. It was inevitable. The national life developed 
between 1789 and 1860 had become so complex and its 
organs so interdepending that it touched almost every 
interest of life. Although sectionalization was so com- 
plete, yet when this sought to express itself in actual 
overt acts, it was found impossible to do so without a 
collision of interests. 

How hard the North tried to save the Union without a 
collision of arms may be partly seen in the compromises 
offered to slavery. The work of both houses of congress 
during the winter of 1860 and 1861 was mainly consumed 
in seeing how far the North would make concession. The 
proof that the Eepublicans were willing to make con- 
cessions in conflict with their platform is found in the 
provisions of the Crittenden Compromise, the resolutions 
of the Committee of Thirty-three, in the work of the Peace 
convention, and the opening, by legislation, of the territories 
without restrictions upon slavery. It was all in vain. 



238 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

The Destruction of Slavery and the Triumph of 

the Nation, 1860-1870. 

Significance of Slavery's Appeal to Arms. — How 

different was the progress of the struggle between nation- 
ality and democracy from the progress of the conflict 
between nationality and slavery! In the former case, the 
hostile forces conquered each other and entered into 
friendly and helpful cooperation, while in the latter they 
have grown into irreconcilable and deadly enemies. 

We now enter upon the final phase of that conflict. 
Our purpose, as before, is to indicate its general and 
organizing features, and not to write its detailed history. 

Was the South conscious of resting her hope of success 
on the ability of slavery to cope successfully with free- 
dom? In several respects, if she had not been blioded by 
pride and passion, the inequality of such a struggle was 
not difficult to see. In the first place, war is, to some 
extent, a question of numbers. Where people are of the 
same race and nation, numbers are a decisive factor. 
Slavery kept population sparse by establishing economical, 
social, and educational conditions unfavorable to dense 
white population. We saw the stream of European emi- 
gration deflected from the South and turned into the 
North. Besides, there was a constant movement of non- 
slaveholders to the free states. In 1850 three times as 
many native southerners were living in the North as 
native northerners living in the South. Again, it was im- 
possible to carry all the slave states into secession. The 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 239 

moral and political support of Delaware, West Virginia, 
Kentucky, and Missouri was thrown against slavery. Be- 
sides, there were thousands of hardy men in the mountains 
of the seceding states whose sympathy and interest were 
with the Union. To them slavery had been an unmiti- 
gated curse. While thousands of the non-slaveholders 
went into the Confederate army, yet they readily joined in 
the cry against the slaveholders' war as being a " rich 
man's war and a poor man's fight." In all these respects 
slavery had handicapped itself. 

In respect to other resources, the institution had stood 
in its own way. Slavery could not equip an army. It 
had very few manufactories for either clothes or guns, or 
any of the enginery of war. In a financial way, it was far 
behind the North ; slavery was agricultural, and had rather 
scorned those great commercial pursuits that furnish 
ready means of expenditure. The banking capital of the 
North in 1860 was several times that of the seceding 
states. Slavery placed its main reliance for credit upon 
cotton. This did promise much, but freedom had wrought 
out many products to overbalance this raw product, whose 
value was lessened by the fact that it had to leave the 
South before the South could profit by it. An efficient 
blockade reduced its value greatly. 

The South had one real advantage over the North. The 
slave remained at home and cared for the soldier's family 
and produced the food supply of the army. This enabled 
the Confederacy to utilize its white population to an extent 
impossible at the North. This fact may have furnished, 



240 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

later in the war, an argument for emancipation. At what- 
ever point yon may touch the conditions of successful war, 
it will be found that slavery had been preparing for its 
defeat from Jamestown to Appomattox. 

The Revival of Nationality in the North. — The sig- 
nal for this was the attack upon Fort Sumter. * A wave of 
loyalty swept over the North that broke down almost all 
differences, and there was but one resolution: a determina- 
tion to save the Union. The causes of this reaction were 
several : 1. The North had gone down on its knees to 
slavery in the winter and spring of 1861, and offered terms 
that were humiliating. These were haughtily rejected. 2. 
The new administration was far from entering on any 
aggressive measures, although military preparation was 
well under way in the South on March 4, 1861. 3. Seizure 
of national property by seceding states, and the attack 
upon Fort Sumter, thus making the South the aggressor. 
4. The general conviction that many southern leaders were 
plotting against the nation while holding high office in its 
service. 

The new enthusiasm for the nation was destined to rise 
and fall. The administration aimed to husband this 
revival. The greatest obstacle was slavery. The major- 
ity of northern people were not abolitionists, and had no 
desire to interfere with the institution in the states. For 
this reason the war had for its supreme aim the preserva- 
tion of the Union. This is the one principle by which 
Lincoln's conduct of the great struggle may be interpreted 
at every point. To this end armies were organized and 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 241 

campaigns planned. It was the supreme consideration in 
his appointments, political and military. This was the 
meaning of his border-state policy, and even when eman- 
cipation came, this was the test he applied to it. His 
wisdom in this showed how thoroughly the president 
understood his constituency. 

How the Slavery Question Forced its Way to the Front. 
— Whatever might be the opinion or prejudice of the North 
regarding slavery, one thing was certain : slavery was 
bound to compel consideration. The president might 
ignore it in his planning, and congress might resolve 
against interfering with it; yet it was the cause of the war, 
and no great war continues long without some discussion 
of its cause, especially if the cause continues to be a 
determining factor. 

As soon as the Union armies moved into slave territory, 
the negroes were inclined to seek freedom within their 
lines. What shall be done with them ? Shall they be 
freed, returned to slavery, confiscated as property, or let 
alone? General Butler declared them "contraband of 
war," other generals returned them to their masters, some, 
like Fremont, liberated them, while a few put them to 
service in the army. The president tried to modify the 
conduct of these generals so as to preserve harmony in 
the war party. 

Congress early passed a resolution that the only purpose 
of the government in the war was to suppress rebellion 
and preserve the Union. But events were moving rapidly. 
The South used the slave in the army. He did the menial 



242 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

service of the camp, worked on fortifications, and in other 
respects enabled the southern soldier always to be at the 
front, thus giving additional strength to the rebel army. 
It was impossible for congress and the administration to 
ignore this. In August, 1861, such negroes were declared 
free. There was some opposition from Democrats and 
border-state men. They feared the example and wanted 
slavery left entirely alone. This bill simply applied 
Butler's idea of regarding slaves used in war as contra- 
band. 

As the burden of war constantly grew heavier, congress 
and the majority at the North were less kindly disposed 
toward slavery. In April, 1862, congress emancipated the 
slaves in the District of Columbia and compensated their 
masters. The border-state men again opposed, but were 
defeated. The anti-slavery spirit gradually rose till in 
August, 1862, congress confiscated the property of the men 
in rebellion. This was practically emancipation for the 
slaves of all rebels. While it was thus limited, yet the 
opposition was vehement both in and out of congress, but 
could not defeat the measure. The need of some such law 
to weaken the power of the South was demonstrated by a 
double sortie from the South ; Lee entered Maryland and 
Bragg, Kentucky, in the late summer and fall of 1862. 

While congress was thus striking somewhat boldly at 
the real cause and continuance of the struggle, President 
Lincoln was making more cautious movements in the same 
direction. Early in 1862 he suggested that the govern- 
ment ought to cooperate, by compensation, with any state 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 243 

which might adopt gradual emancipation. He saw great 
gain to the Union in this, for if once adopted by any state 
the hope of that state's joining the Confederacy was gone 
forever, and in so far the South would be discouraged. 
The matter of gradual and compensated emancipation was 
put before the border-state congressmen, but they gave it 
no support, and he was left, in the progress of war, to face 
the problem of general and uncompensated emancipation. 
The disasters of war were rapidly educating the North 
up to the point of destroying slavery altogether as the 
best means of ending the war. Lincoln's great wisdom 
was in discovering just that point in the march of public 
sentiment when emancipation would find a good measure 
of justification. Nothing could move the president from 
this determination to wait until the country was ready for 
the great decree. It is an interesting commentary on the 
progress of history that the people had to be driven by the 
sore distresses of war before the slave could have his 
freedom and rebellion be punished. Mourning had to come 
into thousands of northern homes before the people were 
willing to save the Union by removing the only cause of 
its disruption. Millions of money and thousands of men 
had been sacrificed, and hardly a beginning had been 
made toward suppressing the rebellion. McClellan's great 
campaign against Richmond had failed; Lee had out- 
maneuvered him and invaded the frightened North. The 
second battle of Bull Run was fought and lost, Harper's 
Ferry had surrendered, and the great battle of Antietam had 
taken place. In the West matters had gone more favor- 



244 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

ably for the Union. Grant was entering on his successful 
career and had captured Henry and Donelson, fought the 
bloody battle of Shiloh, captured Corinth, and was coop- 
erating with the victor of New Orleans for the complete 
opening of the Mississippi. But during the summer and 
early September, General Bragg, at the head of an enthu- 
siastic army, marched out of Tennessee into Kentucky 
and made for Louisville. Buell won the race by a few 
hours only. The exitement in the North was intense, and 
the masses began to appreciate more keenly the stupen- 
dous problem of saving the Union. 

During these first two years of war, the attitude of 
England and France had been anything but friendly. 
They began by prematurely acknowledging the insurgents 
as belligerents. This gave the South a great moral advan- 
tage, but impressed the North as an action only too gladly 
taken. This impression was greatly strengthened by the 
warlike attitude of Great Britain over the Trent affair. 
The South very early found encouragement in London in 
a financial way, and felt that England and France could 
hardly afford to have their supply of American cotton cut 
off by war. This seemed to justify the South in expecting 
some kind of intervention from them. There had been 
much talk of friendly intervention since the opening of 
the war, and after McClellan's failure in the Peninsular 
campaign, this project revived; France, England, and Russia 
held an unsuccessful correspondence on the subject. The 
danger of foreign intervention was a constant menace to 
Union success. 



NAT LOCALITY AND SLAVERY. 245 

Perhaps the greatest cause of northern irritation toward 
England, and one which most harmed and helped the parties 
to the war, was the construction of Confederate privateers 
in the shipyards of Great Britain. Early in 1862, our 
minister to England protested against the construction of 
the vessel afterward known as the Florida; and later, 
against the building of the famous Alabama. The con- 
duct of the British government was entirely unsatisfac- 
tory, and did much to increase the danger of foreign 
war. 

Besides all these dangers and burdens, the loyal people 
were bearing, at the time of the proclamation, an immense 
financial burden that promised to grow constantly heavier. 
When the great proclamation was issued, the internal 
revenue tax was a million a day. When we add to this 
the vast sum raised by tariff duties, the expenditures of 
states^ the contributions of charitable organizations and 
of private persons, some idea can be formed of the enor- 
mous drain upon material resources of the country. All 
these burdens, and even more, were necessary to bring the 
American people to consent to the destruction of slavery. 

The Significance of the Proclamation of Emancipa- 
tion. ■ — This is partly revealed in the preceding discus- 
sions. Its significance, as discovered in succeeding events, 
is now to be noted. Eirst, the act completed the growing 
separation between the administration and certain ele- 
ments in the North who came to be known as peace men, 
as they were inclined to sympathize with the Confederacy. 
From now on, they began to organize to secure peace with- 



246 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

out regard to the means. Later, they developed a secret 
organization known in many states as the Sons of Liberty, 
or Knights of the Golden Circle. Many conservative 
people, while not sympathizing with these malcontents, 
yet drew away from the administration and supported the 
Democratic party in the fall elections of 1862. While the 
result, so nearly disastrous to the administration, 1 was not 
entirely due to the proclamation, yet it furnished the 
" stock " arguments of the campaign. An abolition war, 
negro equality, negro emigration to the North with its 
disastrous effects on the white laborer, a government for 
white men, were some of the catch phrases that made 
opposition votes rapidly in the border free states. There 
was just enough in the war policy to give the color of 
truth to such statements. 

A second significance is found in the fact that, while 
the proclamation divided the North, it unified the South. 
All classes of southern whites despised the free negro. 
The poor whites felt now that the negro would likely rise 
in the scale of importance if the North should win. If a 
great English statesman could look upon it as an act of 
vengeance, we can hardly expect the slaveholders to char- 
acterize the act with gentler terms. One great cause of 
exasperation was the plan to employ the slaves as soldiers. 
This ultimately turned out successful, as many thousand 
colored troops enlisted. This furnished the Confederate 

1 New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois went Demo- 
cratic, leaving only a majority of about twenty in the House. New 
England and the border slave state saved the Union. 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 247 

authorities with another powerful argument in appealing 
to their people for a vigorous support of the war. 

The proclamation, in a third instance, almost completely 
removed the danger of foreign intervention, especially by 
England. The government of England did not dare face 
its own people, to say nothing of the rest of the world, 
with a proposition to favor a confederacy of slaveholders 
gainst a nation devoted to the destruction of slavery. 

In addition, the emancipation of the negro introduced 
new problems, political and social. When the war is over, 
what then ? The burden of war was so great that men 
hardly halted to consider the grave questions which were 
thus forced upon the nation. What shall be the status 
of the freedmen ? From many points of view it was a 
fearful question, considering their condition. 

Finally, the emancipation of the slave was the beginning 
of the end of the struggle between slavery and nationality. 
This removes the last important obstacle to our becoming 
a great nation such as the fathers of the republic little 
imagined. When the Union is restored, only the effects 
of slavery will stand in the way of a new national spirit. 

Leading Military Events Making Good the Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation and the Restoration of the Nation. 
— The one common content of the events of the war is 
their bearing on the restoration of the Union. Up to the 
proclamation, all events tended more or less unconsciously 
to force slavery into the contest, while many persons strove 
consciously to eliminate it. After the proclamation all 
events carry, as a part of their content, the fortunes of 



248 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

both slavery and the Union. The following events may- 
be regarded as directly affecting this double result, without 
an understanding of which the result is not intelligible. 

1. The campaign for the capture of Vicksburg and the 
opening of the Mississippi. This occupied a portion of 
1862 and the first half of 1863. The result was to finally 
sever Arkansas and Texas from direct relations with the 
rest of the Confederacy, in addition to the loss of a large 
army and vast military stores. The Mississippi states 
now had direct communication with the Atlantic seaboard. 

2. While Grant was capturing Vicksburg, Buell and 
Bosecrans were driving Bragg out of Kentucky back into 
the mountains of Tennessee. The leading battles were 
Perryville and Stone Biver. Thus driven out of these 
two great states after so bold a sortie to the North, the 
moral effect was depressing to the South. 

3. Just as Grant was receiving the surrender of Vicks- 
burg, and Eosecrans was pushing Bragg out of Tennessee, 
General Meade had checked the tide of Confederate inva- 
sion at Gettysburg. This was the first great victory in 
the East since Antietam, while the Confederates could 
point to Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. The victory 
at Gettysburg, while incomplete and short of what the 
North had a right to expect, had more than the saving of 
Washington as its result. It demonstrated to the South 
that the insurgents would receive no more substantial aid 
from the border states. Not even the provocation of 
conscription could compel its opponents to join the Con- 
federates. Of course, Lee's army was greatly dispirited, 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 249 

and desertions rapidly increased. For the time being, 
these important successes discouraged the efforts of the 
peace men, both North and South, who tried to secure a 
cessation of hostilities on terms less than the restoration 
of the Union. 

4. The tide of Union victory was somewhat checked in 
September, 1863, when Bragg so nearly annihilated Kose- 
crans at Chickamauga, and cooped up the remnant of his 
army in Chattanooga. The siege was raised by aid from 
the victors at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. The Confederate 
army was defeated in those brilliant and almost unmatched 
charges up Lookout Mountain and on Missionary Ridge. 

5. When General Grant went East, he put General 
Sherman in command of the great army in the West. 
By July, 1864, Johnston, after a series of most brilliant 
retreats, was driven into Atlanta. Hood succeeded him, 
and had his army defeated. Hood now turned North, and 
was so disastrously defeated in December by Thomas at 
Franklin that his army never rallied from the blow. In 
the meantime, Sherman was making his famous march to 
the sea. Little opposed, Savannah, Charleston, and other 
places fell. On his return, Johnston, who had been re- 
stored to command, was driven back into North Carolina. 
This march kept reinforcements from Lee at Richmond, 
and served to demonstrate the inevitable collapse of the 
Confederacy. 

6. Early in 1864, General Grant was placed in com- 
mand of all the armies of the Union. With Meade and the 
army of the Potomac, he began a campaign which ended 



250 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

only at Appomattox, April, 1865. In this series of battles, 
Lee's army simply battered itself to pieces. The resources 
of the Confederate states were exhausted. At no point in 
the war was the nakedness of slavery so apparent as in 
these last days. The vast strength of the Union forces, 
their splendid equipment in arms, food, and clothing, were 
arguments in favor of freedom and against slavery more 
powerful than were ever set forth by the logic of states- 
men. With an energy hardly paralleled in history, the 
South had concentrated her forces, political and military, 
and kept up the movement till her very life was burned 
out. Her institutions literally collapsed, and there was 
left only the disorganized heap of ruins. 

Other Events from the Proclamation to the Close of the 
War. — War can never be an end in itself. Hence it 
must have a non-military motive ; it must aim at political 
or other ends. In a great struggle like the Civil War, the 
relation between military and political events is always 
interactive. The following are some of the events which 
influenced the war itself, and were in turn modified 
by it. 

1. It has already been shown how the financial burdens 
of the war argued for the abolition of slavery. The finan- 
cial measures taken after this great event aided in promot- 
ing military success, and thus in saving the Union. The 
establishment of the national banking system was the 
most important of the later financial measures. It was 
strongly opposed, but passed early in the spring of 1863, 
and gave the United States a helpful piece of financial 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. '251 

machinery; and more than all, it gave greater confidence 
in the financial strength of the country. 

2. The critical political event of this part of the strug- 
gle was the presidential election of 1864. The Confeder- 
acy had much faith in the defeat of Lincoln. This hope 
rested on several things. One was the probable split in 
the Eepublican party. There was much dissatisfaction 
with the administration's conduct of the war. The aboli- 
tionists had not forgiven Lincoln for delaying emancipation 
till the country was ready for the measure. The radical 
leaders were impatient with his conservatism on all ques- 
tions, and especially now over questions preliminary to 
reconstruction. Some of the more hot-headed issued a 
manifesto setting forth their opposition. Many disap- 
pointed office-seekers joined the opposition which tended 
to concentrate upon Secretary Chase as the rival candidate 
for the presidency. Ohio early declared for Lincoln, and 
Chase withdrew from the field. The malcontents met in 
convention at Cleveland, May, 1864, and nominated General 
Fremont. The attitude of the Democrats and the hope- 
lessness of success led him to withdraw. In proportion 
as the politicians opposed Lincoln, it seemed that the 
people rallied to his support. From all parts of the Union 
and from all kinds of bodies came an emphatic demand for 
his renomination, which took place at Baltimore and on a 
platform that strongly endorsed his administration, declared 
against making compromises with the rebellion, and in 
favor of an amendment abolishing slavery. The Peace 
Democrats captured their party in the Chicago convention 



252 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

and declared the war a failure, called for a convention of 
states to settle the difficulties between the Confederacy 
and the Union, and denounced the president for trampling 
on the Constitution and the rights of the people. This 
was another way of saying that the Union ought to be 
saved with slavery. General McClellan was nominated, 
but in his letter of acceptance he took issue with some 
parts of the platform. The rapid and successful progress 
of war made a peace platform and a war candidate seem 
ridiculously absurd. The election gave Lincoln an over- 
whelming popular and electoral vote ; all the states voting, 
except three, went for Lincoln, — a sufficiently emphatic 
endorsement of his war on slavery. 

Digging Slavery up by the Roots. — The proposition 
of the Confederacy in the last months of the war to 
employ negroes as soldiers, not only revealed the utter 
exhaustion of the South, but demonstrated their loss of 
faith in the possibility of saving the institution. It is 
interesting and significant that Lee offered to make no 
stipulations with Grant about slavery when arranging 
terms at Appomattox. Although slavery was passing 
away by the logic of events, yet its very roots must be 
pulled up. This was accomplished by amending the Con- 
stitution. 

President Lincoln had, by an exercise of "the war 
power," struck a deadly blow at slavery ; but it was felt 
that the result, to be a finality, must be stamped upon the 
Constitution itself. In February, 1865, congress sent the 
thirteenth amendment to the people. It was ratified and 



NATIONALITY AND SLAVERY. 253 

officially proclaimed by December 18. This amendment 
put the principle of the anti-slavery clause of the Ordi- 
nance of 1787 and the Wilmot Proviso into the Constitu- 
tion. While most of the states lately in rebellion accepted 
this amendment, they proceeded to legislate in a way 
which showed a determination to hold the negroes in a 
sort of slavery. The worst of these laws pertained to 
employment, labor contracts, and vagrancy. 

When the congress, elected in 1864, met in 1865, the 
Republican majority was furious over the so-called at- 
tempts to nullify the thirteenth amendment, and the 
apparent encouragement given to those states by President 
Johnson. The disastrous effects of southern legislation 
upon the negro were partly overcome by the friendly 
interposition of the Freedmen's Bureau. In June of 
1866 congress passed the fourteenth amendment, which 
embodied the ideas of the " civil rights " bill and provided 
penalties for limiting the suffrage of any class of citizens. 
This was not ratified till July, 1868. In the next year 
the final amendment growing out of the Civil War passed 
congress and went to the states for their approval. This 
was proclaimed in March, 1870, and denied to the United 
States and to the states the power to refuse suffrage to 
any one "on account of race, color, or previous condition 
of servitude." Thus was completed, by constitutional 
amendment, the process by which the nation annihilated 
its greatest enemy, and the United States now began that 
career of unrivaled national prosperity on which it might 
have entered in 1840 had not slavery blocked the way. 



254 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

While many of the results of the struggle of nationality 
and slavery were negative, yet, in general, a new national 
consciousness was born in this life-and-death struggle 
which prepared the nation to enter with greater vigor 
upon its new career. What this new movement is, and 
what its dominant and controlling principle is, does not 
belong to the present discussion to determine, but that 
there is a new organizing principle controlling its events, 
all the preceding discussions lead us to believe ; also that 
its discovery and application in the teaching of the new 
period after 1870 is of vital importance, pedagogical as 
well as historical. 



THE ELEMENTARY PHASES OF HISTOKY 

TEACHING. 



— ° ■» g 3 6 3 e 



THE SENSE PHASE OF HISTORY. 



The General Problem. 

That which is logically first in a subject comes last into 
the possession of the unfolding mind, and that which 
comes chronologically first to the growing mental powers 
stands logically last in the subject. But every fact that 
occupies the line between these two mental points looks 
back to that which precedes as means, and forward to that 
which follows as end. This is the justification for the ar- 
rangement of the subject-matter in this book. No one can 
intelligently determine what the method of history work 
should be without first discovering the logical relations in 
the subject-matter itself. The subject in its scientific form 
stands as the goal toward which every lesson must point, 
no matter where the material is found along the line 
between these two points. It is in this spirit that the 
lower phases of history study are to be considered. Not 
that the lower forms have no value in themselves, but 



256 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

rather that their relations to the higher phases of the 
study constitute their greatest pedagogical significance. 

If we approach the question from the side of mind, we 
find the law of dependence holding between its forms of 
activity. The senses furnish material for the imagination, 
and both supply matter for the understanding, and the 
latter for the reason. The phase of history already dis- 
cussed pertains to those attributes, relations, and laws fur- 
nished mainly by the understanding and reason. From 
the point of view of mind, therefore, we have yet to dis- 
cuss the material of history in its relation to these lower 
forms of mental life, — the senses and the imagination. 
This is really another double problem. Here we are 
again to show how the material of history is transformed 
by, and also transforms, the lower mental activities. 

Nature and Purpose of Sense History. — Does history 
have a Sense phase ? Let us see. History deals with the 
thought and feeling of a .people. A people's thought and 
feeling are expressed in outward acts. These acts are 
sensuous and physical ; they can be seen, heard, and felt. 
But it may be said that while the events of history were 
objects of observation to persons who lived when and 
where they occurred, they can never be present to the 
senses again. It is true that, for the most part, the field 
of historical happenings is beyond the reach of the senses. 
It is just as true, also, that the child, up to the time he 
reaches school, has been observing and participating in the 
acts of men. While the acts observed in this period of 
the child's life are not the individual acts he will study 



THE SENSE PHASE OF HISTORY. 257 

in after days, yet so great is the transforming power of 
the imagination that it can take the deeds of man pre- 
sented to the senses and bnild from them pictures of the 
deeds of all people of all times. Now, the events that 
thus occur in the presence of the pupil's senses belong in 
the domain of all the institutions of human society. He 
is born into and remains a member of the family. He 
early learns the connection between occupations and his 
supply of food and clothing. At six he enters school, and, 
it is quite likely, before this he has been to Sunday school 
and church. If he is an average boy, long ere this he has 
taken an active personal interest in a political campaign. 
There thus seems to be a pretty wide field here which the 
pupil has already entered. Why should not this work, 
spontaneously begun, be taken up and carried further by 
the teacher? It would seem that a fuller and a more 
systematic study could be commenced when the pupil first 
enters school. It might be well to let this spontaneous 
process go on for two or three years longer, till the class 
has covered all Sense work in geography except that which 
relates to man. Such an arrangement would permit the 
teacher to combine this last part of Sense geography with 
Sense history. The two subjects, in material and point of 
view, are practically the same. 

In order that we may accomplish definite results, the end 
toward which we work must be clearly in mind. A defin- 
ite purpose will, also, direct in the selection of the material 
for work. The answer may be given in terms of discipline 
and of knowledge. 1. On the side of discipline : (a) the 



258 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

primary object is to confer the habit of judging men's 
thoughts and feelings through their acts ; (b) a secondary 
end is to give the mind the habit of careful observation — 
the habit of finding truth in objects present to the senses. 
2. On the side of knowledge : (a) the primary object is to 
give the mind material out of which the imagination may 
construct pictures of historical events ; (b) the secondary 
purpose, or rather result, is to give a more thorough knowl- 
edge of local institutions. The primary end on the side of 
discipline is peculiar to history. ISTo other subject, in all 
its phases, puts the mind to the test of finding man's head 
and heart in his acts. This is a power conferred by the 
study of history at every point. It should not be lost sight 
of in the Sense phase ; for it seems very appropriate that 
when the mind begins to struggle with this problem, its 
material should be in its very presence and be sensuous 
and simple. A result, rather than a purpose, will be to 
give the mind the habit of studying objects that appeal to 
the sense. This is not peculiar to this kind of history 
work, but is rather a mental result to which many subjects 
contribute. The primary end aimed at on the side of 
knowledge in this phase of the work grows out of the rela- 
tion between the Sense and the Representative phases of 
mental life. Because of the close dependence between 
them, it is right to say that Sense history has its highest 
significance in the fact that it gives the mind the material 
that makes possible the next stage of the work, — a stage 
in which the mind is busy in constructing pictures of the 
past. Most of the events of history are of this kind, — 



THE SENSE PHASE OF HISTORY. 259 

Representative. Their mastery by the higher powers of the 
mind largely depends on the clearness and fullness with 
which the imagination can picture them. Now, the skill 
of the imagination partly depends on the material furnished 
the mind through the senses. It seems right, therefore, 
to say that the primary aim here is to prepare for the sec- 
ond phase of history study. Since the events dealt with 
in Eepresentative history must reach the mind through the 
language of books or of teachers, it is right to say that this 
first phase of work prepares the mind to put meaning into 
the language, by means of which events are described to 
the imagination. It is no unusual thing for the pupil not 
to be able to put content into the words of the history text. 
He feels that a recitation must be made, and his only re- 
source is to commit the language of the lesson. In such 
cases the book fails to arouse the pupil's imagination, be- 
cause the content of the book is foreign to any of his pre- 
vious experiences. In other words, the pupil has not been 
properly prepared for the ideas and vocabulary of the his- 
tory text. From this point of view, we seem justified in 
holding that the primary purpose in Sense history is to 
prepare the mind for the second phase of the study. This 
makes it clear that a knowledge of local institutions is a 
result, rather an end, or it may be regarded as a means 
to the primary end ; this means that local institutions are 
to be studied only in so far as they prepare material for 
the imagination. The knowledge of affairs could hardly 
be the primary aim in this kind of work on account of the 
degree of mental strength. 



260 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

The Material foe, Sense History. 

The matter presented is intended to be merely suggestive 
— to indicate the lines of work which this phase of history 
opens up to the teacher. This work presupposes two 
things : 1. That the pupil has been in school two or three 
years and has finished the Sense phase of geography, except 
that part dealing with man and his institutions. 2. That 
the teacher sees the intimate connection between Sense 
political geography and Sense history. 

In opening up a new field of study to the immature 
mind, the point of beginning is a question of some impor- 
tance. If the subject is a difficult one, the part taken first 
is determined by the principle that the mind deals most 
easily with material familiar to it through frequent and 
intimate experience. With which institution should the 
child begin his observation? In obedience to the principle 
stated we must find that institution in which the acts of 
man fall easiest within the limits of the child's powers, 
and that one where customs and ideas have entered most 
fully into his everyday life. The institution that has fur- 
nished him the widest range of concrete and sensuous ex- 
perience must furnish the material for the first series of 
lessons. 

These conditions seem to be most fully met by the 
family. Into this institution the pupil was born eight or 
nine years ago. He has differentiated himself from the 
rest of his young friends by recognizing himself as a mem- 
ber of a certain family, and has put them into groups on 



THE SENSE PHASE OF HISTOKY. 261 

the basis of family connections. His wants and desires have 
been supplied by the family, and around it and its mem- 
bers his affections have twined themselves. These facts, 
and many more akin to them, seem to point to the family 
as the form of institutional life with which the work may 
most easily and profitably begin. The question is now 
what the family furnishes for his observation that will aid 
in the study of social life of a past age — will aid in pictur- 
ing their life of customs and deeds, and in making infer- 
ences from these as to their thought and feeling. The 
following topics point the way toward the answer : 

1. The relationship between parents and children. The 
main ideas here are the parents as lawgivers and the chil- 
dren as obedient subjects. The pupil can see himself under 
a rule of action common to each member of his related 
group, and must see some of the results that attend obedi- 
ence and disobedience. These are ideas that he will meet 
many times, and in Bible history he will be called on to 
construct a system of government built out of the family 
tie. Whenever the family is met, he should picture the 
home and its relationships. 

2. Eelation of the family to food, clothing, and shelter. 
This will bring the pupil to study a subject that has touched 
him very intimately. The common duties that he has to 
perform, as a member of the family, can be traced so that 
he will see their relation to his physical wants. The lesson 
of mutual dependence can also be learned, — how the physi- 
cal and social good of each is linked to that of the whole. 
The position of each member of the family as to ownership 



262 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

in property, and the law and custom of his community 
bearing on the distribution of the property among children, 
furnish interesting and valuable topics. 

3. Eelationship between families. This subject opens 
the whole field of observable social life. The study of cus- 
toms — particularly those pastimes and games in which 
people engage for pleasure — will be an inviting field to 
the young pupil; and, all unconsciously, he will lay up a 
vast fund of material out of which he will construct the 
social life of the past, particularly that part of it pertain- 
ing to the boys and girls of the olden time. 

Intimately connected with the family is the industrial 
life of the community. We have seen that the pupil has 
had a wide range of experience relating to food and cloth- 
ing, — the most tangible results of industry. He has felt 
his dependence upon them in the study of the family ; hence 
it seems very easy to make the transition from the study 
of social, to the study of industrial, life. This new field 
opens a wide range of simple observable facts. Here are a 
few lines that may be worked out : 

1. The kinds of occupations and their relation to one 
another. The lesson of mutual dependence can be taught 
here again, but on a much wider scale than it was illus- 
trated in the family. 

2. Effect of different kinds of occupations on the habits 
and customs of the people. 

3. The protection of property by law. From the pupil's 
own observation, a study must be made of the process by 
which this is done. This would include the arrest and 



THE SENSE PHASE OF HISTORY. 263 

temporary imprisonment of the accused, summoning wit- 
nesses, the trial, and the punishment. In dealing with a 
concrete case, in which trial and punishment follow as a 
means to protect property, a good opportunity is offered to 
judge of the thought and feeling of men as expressed in 
their acts. What did the owner of the property and his 
neighbors do when the theft occurred? Why? The an- 
swer must come in terms of their thoughts and feelings. 
How does the accused man feel, and what does he think ? 
How do you know ? Why should he be -tried, and what is 
the purpose of fining and imprisoning him? The pupil 
may not be able to penetrate and fully interpret all these 
acts ; but this is so vital an act of mind in all historical in- 
vestigation that the pupil cannot begin too soon, and push 
it as far as his strength will allow. 

The study of the school at first hand, so as to get his- 
torical material, is more difficult — less concrete — than in 
the institutions already examined : 1. Something of the 
intention of his parents in sending him to school may be 
brought out, — its industrial significance, perhaps ; but cer- 
tainly nothing of its higher significance can be inferred by 
him. 2. The idea of the free character of the school must 
be presented to him, with as much of its significance as he 
can master. 3. The different grades of schools and their 
wide distribution will suggest what an ambitious person 
may do. 4. How the teacher is selected and paid, and the 
pupil's relation to him in the school. 

The institution we call the church is, in most of its 
phases, beyond the child's power. But even here some- 



264 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

thing may be done by observation and study : 1. The kinds 
of religious denominations and their feeling toward one an- 
other. In a general way, the pupil may see that the people 
separate into sects because of a difference in thoughts. 
2. The purpose of the church and Sunday school determined 
from the acts they do. 3. The social customs connected 
with the church. 

There is another very important and still more fruitful 
field for Sense work in history, — the political. ' The fol- 
lowing points may be helpful in suggesting where material 
in this field may be found : 

1. Every neighborhood furnishes the pupil examples of 
men set apart by some process to perform the duties of 
local government. The mode of selection, the purpose, and 
duties of such officers should be brought under the pupil's 
observation. 

2. If he lives in town or city, there is still greater op- 
portunity for Sense study ; the policeman in uniform, the 
mayor, the assessor, the men who work in the streets, — 
each of these calls for attention and has its own lesson. 

3. Political events, especially those connected with state 
and national campaigns, furnish abundant and valuable 
material for the. end we have in view. Besides, by the con- 
crete and sensuous character of the events, they have moved 
his feelings very intensely — much more so than the events 
in the other phases of life. The boy, and the girl too, for 
that matter, has not lived very long until his sympathies 
have been deeply enlisted in a political campaign. The 
chances are that long before ten years of age he has partici- 



THE SENSE PHASE OF HISTORY. 265 

pated in more than one political demonstration. What- 
ever may be said abont the desirability of a child partici- 
pating so early in political prejudices, it is certainly true 
that it gives him an abundant supply of material to aid in 
putting content into events of a kindred nature which he 
will soon be dealing with, — events that can only appear to 
him in the realm of imagination. All the glitter and show, 
pomp and parade, noise and music of a campaign are not 
lost on a boy. They have a value for him far beyond the 
immediate present. Think of the gorgeous picture that 
flashes before his senses and impresses itself upon his mem- 
ory : brass bands, large numbers of great decorated wagons 
drawn by spans of spirited horses, and filled with grace and 
beauty, great men riding in state, — governors, senators, 
statesmen, and orators, — uniformed ranks with stately 
tread, long lines of brilliant torches, the flash and flare of 
fireworks, the roar of cannon, the billows of human huzzas, 
triumphal arches, and banners with inscriptions ! 

Two boys — one has never seen this picture or the like, 
while the other has been a part of it ; which of them can 
picture most fully and vividly a Eoman triumph, the cele- 
bration of a king's coronation, the greeting that Columbus 
received on his first return to Spain, the arrival of the 
royal governor in Virginia, the processions that paid honor 
to Washington as he passed through the land, the grand 
review in Washington at the close of the Civil War ? There 
can be but one answer. Again, this observation of a politi- 
cal demonstration on the part of the pupil gives the teacher 
a rare opportunity to cultivate the historic judgment. 



266 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

What were his feelings ? Why did he participate in the 
parade ? What was the purpose of the other people in tak- 
ing part, and what was their feeling? Prove the answer. 
How did the persons who staid at home and refused to 
join the demonstration feel? Prove it. By questions, 
the pupil may be led to analyze the outside show and the 
inner significance of a political demonstration. 

The conclusion seems to be that whether the pupil gets 
his sensuous experience from study and observation directed 
by the teacher or gathers it spontaneously from contact 
with men and events, it will have a very great influence 
over his after study of history. 



THE REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 



The General Problem. 

Nature and Immediate Purpose. — Any attempt to draw 
sharp lines of separation between the phases of history- 
based on the phases of mental activity will result in harm 
These phases are not rigidly distinct. They transfuse — 
each is found in the others and is necessary -to their high- 
est form. The Representative phase of history looks two 
ways, — back to Sense material, and forward to Reflective 
work. We know that one purpose of Sense history is to 
furnish the memory an abundance of rich material upon 
which the imagination can draw in the process of creating 
in pictured form the history of our country. While it is 
true that in the first phase of the work the mind is mainly 
absorbed in sensuous events which it mainly uses in the 
second, yet as the pupils go through life the senses are 
open and the material is used at every stage. So, too, 
the judgment, in some of its forms, is present in the first 
two stages of the work as well as predominant in the third. 

The immediate purpose of the Representative phase of 
history is to give the mind that peculiar form of activity 
which its stage of growth calls for. As the mind passes 
from immaturity to maturity, it enters a phase of activity 
in which Representation seems to be very active. At this 



268 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

period the mind delights in image-making — takes more 
interest in this form of exercise than in any other, and 
more interest now than it will at any other time in its 
development. It ought, therefore, to be given all the 
opportunity it craves for this form of exercise. In history 
this may be done by causing the mind to transform into 
pictures of historical events the material it gathered in 
Sense history. To cultivate — stimulate and strengthen — 
the imagination is the immediate end to be held in view in 
this second stage of the work. 

There is, as there must be in all nature, a beautiful har- 
mony between this form of mental activity and a peculiar 
form of historical phenomena. There is not only a phase 
of mind activity that we may designate as the Representa- 
tive, but there is a form of historical material that fits into 
this side of the mind's life and is adapted to stimulate it. 
We have seen all along the way that history has to deal 
with two sets of parallel phenomena, an inner and an outer, 
— ideas and events. The latter is sensuous and external, 
and can be reproduced in imagination with all the attri- 
butes that characterized it in its sensuous form — just as 
it appeared to the eyes and ears of the men who witnessed 
it. So true is the imagination to the senses, if it has an 
opportunity, that one may become so absorbed in the pic- 
ture it paints as to feel for a moment that he stands in the 
very presence of the scenes recounted — it may be, as a 
participant in them. When we reflect upon the fact that 
every great wave of human thought and feeling has 
expressed itself in external phenomena that may thus be 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OP HISTORY. 269 

vividly reproduced by the imagination, it becomes evident 
that this phase of historical knowledge must play an impor- 
tant part in the study of any part of this subject; and it 
may well become our immediate purpose on the side of 
knowledge to give the imagination possession of this form 
of historical material. 

This phase of the study has been called, not inappro- 
priately, the Story side of history. The name is significant 
because it emphasizes that which charms us most in the 
real story, — the movement of a stream of pictures which 
the story sets going in our imagination. These charm us 
by the ease with which they come and go, and by the rich- 
ness and variety they present. The characters are concrete 
— they are given a sensuous setting. This is not unlike 
what happens in the Representative or Story side of his- 
tory ; the pupil becomes consciously interested in the acts 
and actors that history reproduces, as it were, before his 
very eyes. It is this side of the objects presented that 
interests and absorbs him rather than the possible rela- 
tions which may be revealed by the judgment under the 
direction of the teacher. 

The conclusion must not be drawn that imagination is 
the only form of mental activity in this kind of work. 
This would be far from the truth. The judgment is 
always present, even when the imagination is at its best. 
Neither one excludes the other, but they are mutually 
helpful. The historical form of the judgment — in which 
it infers thought and feeling from acts — is really depend- 
ent upon the imagination for its material. Thought and 



270 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

feeling cannot be inferred unless the imagination calls the 
deeds back to life again. In its turn the work of the judg- 
ment reacts upon the pictured scene and not only makes it 
more vivid, but more permanent as well. Let us call up 
the picture of the battle of Bunker Hill at the close of the 
second retreat. How different is the scene inside and out- 
side of the breastworks ! As the imagination pictures the 
hill-slope strewn with British dead and wounded, and the 
Americans comparatively unhurt behind their rude fort, 
the judgment seeks an explanation in the relation which 
the ' fort bears to the parties in conflict. What is the 
effect on the picture of the judgment passing from fort to 
British and from fort to Americans as it searches for the 
explanation? There can be but one result, — a stronger 
and more lasting picture of the scene. The parts of the 
picture are no more the simple, independent parts they 
were when the imagination first began to light up the scene, 
but now they are tied together forever by the relation of 
contrasted results due to the same cause. It seems to me 
that it will always be an aid to the imagination for the 
judgment to go rumaging among the parts of its pictures 
to find relations. 

If the above be true, this question may be raised : Why 
not make the search for these relations by the judgment 
the immediate purpose, on the side of knowledge, for which 
the second phase of history is studied? Three reasons 
point rather to the immediate purpose as stated above : 
1. The mind at this stage makes pictures more easily than 
it searches for relations. 2. The picture work is more 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 271 

interesting and absorbs attention and effort more easily. 
3. This phase of historical material must come into the 
mind's possession as the basis for higher work. It seems 
desirable, therefore, that picture-making should character- 
ize the work at some time. If it is not done in this period 
of the child's life, it will stand in his way when the teacher 
is turning the emphasis of conscious effort toward the reflec- 
tive side of the work ; it will then mean that the pupil 
must do the work that could have been better done at an 
earlier date — that he must now expend a portion of his 
energy in filling out the picture side of events instead of 
concentrating all his power on the discovery of relations. 
Many illustrations of the disadvantage such a pupil must 
labor under may be given, but the case is so plain that it 
hardly needs more than a statement to be accepted. 

The Remote Purpose. — The above point brings us face 
to face with the question of the remote ends to be gained 
by the Eepresentative phase of history work. Of course, 
the mind cannot rest with this kind of work and attain 
either the greatest degree of strength or the highest form 
of knowledge the subject is capable of yielding. If the 
pupil is conscious of an end in this work, it is very likely 
that he thinks only of the immediate end on the side of 
knowledge. He is not conscious of a remote end. What 
if the teacher is in the same predicament ? In order that 
the pupil may do the picture-making side of his work well, 
the teacher must be living under the inspiration that comes 
from an end that is outside of and beyond the little piece 
of work that she may be laboring upon. There is little 



272 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

hope for pupil or teacher if the latter does not see in this 
phase of work the steps on which the pupil is to climb to 
higher realms. The remote end must always control the 
immediate, for the latter is means to the former. How 
shall the means be handled ? How shall the picture-mak- 
ing phase of work be carried on, — in what spirit, along 
what lines, and to what extent in any line ? Now these 
questions cannot be answered unless the teacher sees how 
this work is to issue in power to gain more and higher 
knowledge — unless the remote end is constantly before 
the mind as the guiding light. 

In discussing the remote ends to be reached by this kind 
of history teaching, it is hardly necessary to distinguish 
between discipline and knowledge. Either the kind of 
mental exercise or the form of knowledge to be reached 
will perhaps serve equally well as remote ends to guide 
one in leading the pupil so that he gets the best discipline 
in this phase of the work, and at the same time lays the 
best foundation for the new work. 1 

Material for Representative History. 

What the pupil is able to do in this kind of work is 
partly determined by what he has done in the Sense phase, 
while the way in which the material is to be handled is 
largely conditioned by the ends to be gained. It will be 

1 It is quite possible that the distinction between teaching for dis- 
cipline and teaching for knowledge is a mechanical one, and that the 
teaching for highest discipline is precisely the teaching that gives the 
highest knowledge. 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 273 

taken for granted, in the following discussion, that the 
pupil at this age, nine or ten, has had quite an extended 
observation of local institutional life, — at least, such as 
was indicated under the preceding phase of history work. 
The amount and kind of it will point us toward the begin- 
ning-place in the new field. 

How to find the Starting-point. — In order that we 
may lead the pupil by easy transitions from the sensible 
present into the midst of the pictured past, it is necessary 
to locate the point at which the new phase of work is to 
open. How far back into the past of our history shall we 
go, — back a generation or two, back to the colonial days, 
or back to the European homes of the colonists ? The 
remote purpose of Representative history probably points 
to colonial life as the proper beginning-point. This pur- 
pose requires that the study of Representative material 
shall prepare for that phase of the work in which the 
judgment begins to appear as the predominant form of 
activity. To perform the function of an efficient means, 
this work must deal very largely with the same set of facts 
that will be studied again from another point of view. It 
may be urged that this remote end calls for pictures of the 
colonists in their European homes. There are two con- 
siderations against this : European social life is not an end 
in American history, but is studied for the light it throws 
on colonial life ; again, European social life contains so 
many elements not needed to explain colooial life that it 
presents a picture entirely too complex and too strange for 
this stage of work and this stage of the pupil's mental life j 



274 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

it is too far removed from the types of institutional life 
which have fallen under his observation. 1 

If colonial life is accepted as the starting-point of the 
new phase of work, we may now turn back and ask how the 
transition is to be made easy in passing from the work 
of sense to this new field of the imagination. Are there 
means by which the transfer of attention and interest may 
be easily and effectively made ? Can the mind of the 
pupil be given a new motive that will carry him over into 
the new field ? The teacher must be able to answer these 
questions in the affirmative, for it is of vital consequence 
to the pupil at least to feel that there is some connection 
between the facts studied that makes it appropriate to 
proceed in a given order. Disastrous results come to him 
from jumping around here and the»e without reason or 
motive being apparent — disastrous to the pupil's habit of 
thought and to a true idea of the nature of history. The 
line of transition, therefore, must connect at one end with 
the pupil's experience, and at the other with the new field 
of work. 

The pupil has hardly reached this age without having 
had his curiosity excited by some hint or story to the 
effect that the place where he now resides has not always 
been the abode of his kinsmen or of the people of the 
same race. He has, no doubt, heard stories and may have 

1 If it is held that the pupil may take only those elements of Euro- 
pean life bearing on American history, the answer may be made that 
the work would better begin with these elements in their colonial en- 
vironment. 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 275 

seen evidences of the existence of the red man in the place 
where now are farms, villages, or cities. He perhaps 
knows that the face of the country, in that distant time, 
was uncultivated and likely covered with dense forests. 
Then again, he has a general idea that his parents, or 
more likely his grandparents, came from the eastward, and 
perhaps that there has been a general movement of the 
white people from the East toward the West. If this 
material is not at hand through experience and contact 
with people and things, then the teacher must furnish it 
through familiar conversation with them, or lead them to 
search at home and among friends for such evidence as 
may be at hand to indicate the presence here of another 
race and the absence of the white one, and of the proces- 
sion of the latter from the Atlantic toward the West. 
These lessons would very appropriately come at the close 
of the work on the Sense phase. The matter of these les- 
sons is peculiarly adapted to make an easy transition 
from Sense to representative work, from the fact that the 
material itself is partly subject to observation and partly 
to representation, while in its meaning it points almost 
entirely to the past. 

This material suggests very naturally that the back- 
ground of the great complex picture should be an idea 
of this country before the arrival of the white man as 
the teacher can give. This should contain a general 
notion of the country as covered by great forests filled 
with animal life, such as the first settlers found here, 
and on which the Indians partly subsisted. The natives 



276 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

themselves will form an important part of this back- 
ground, — their appearance, modes of life, and other ideas 
and customs. It is not meant to suggest any detailed 
study of the Indians, as the subject might well tempt 
one to do with pupils at this age, for they do not form 
an essential and permanent feature of our historical life. 
The aim here is to create a background so the pupil can 
see step by step the progress of the whites to the west- 
ward, and at the same time will have in mind some condi- 
tions that will make clear the conflicts between the white 
and red men, and why the latter were gradually driven 
westward. 

With this part of the story done, the teacher is con- 
fronted with another question : Where shall the account 
of the life of the colonies begin, and how shall the work 
be distributed ? Let us look at the last question first. 
The people who came to America were not entirely homo- 
geneous in institutional life; in fact, we may find four 
pretty distinct types, — English, Dutch, French, aud 
Spanish. Somewhere in this phase lessons must be 
given to the last three types, but not at the beginning, 
for they are too foreign — too far removed from the 
child's experience to serve as a beginning-place. Among 
the thirteen colonies we have four pretty well-marked 
classes, — the Puritan of New England, the planter and 
slaveholder of the South, the Pennsylvania Quaker, and 
the Dutchman of New York. Any picture of colonial life 
without the shadings and variety of at least these four 
forms would be very incomplete. In excluding the French 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 277 

and Spanish from the beginnings of this phase of the 
work, the first question has been narrowed to this : Which 
phase of colonial life selected offers the best conditions 
for a beginning-point ? The answer lies, perhaps, between 
the New England and southern life. Since the Quakers 
came to America so much later than the others, it would 
seem awkward to begin with them, and the Dutch are 
farthest removed. As between the remaining groups the 
difference in time is so small as to constitute no argument 
in favor of the southern group, the choice must fall on 
New England, at least for northern pupils, for the reason 
that the contrast between the observation and experience 
of the pupils and the life of New England is not so wide 
as in the case of the other colonies. 

We now have another question to clear up : Which 
phase of New England history shall furnish material for 
the first round of Eepresentative work ? Shall we follow 
the order of the leading events, beginning with the arrival 
of the Mayflower, and move on down toward the Revolu- 
tion, or shall we go to the home life of this simple, earnest 
folk and get as close as possible to their everyday expe- 
rience, and then follow out each institution in order of 
difficulty? The Sense work points to the latter line as 
most appropriate at this stage of the pupil's knowledge 
and strength. The emphasis which he placed on the social 
side of the Sense work gave him material out of which he 
can more easily construct the same form of life among the 
peoples of the past. It ought to be added, however, that 
at a later stage of the Representative phase, the leading 



278 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

events of New England's history should be taken up and 
followed out in order of occurrence, for the immediate 
purpose of filling the imagination with full, vivid pictures 
of them, The nature of these events — Indian wars, dis- 
putes about claims, banishment of Roger Williams, estab- 
lishment of representative government, New England 
union, persecution of the Quakers — removed them much 
farther from the pupil's experience than the simpler facts 
of family and industrial life. Besides, there is no par- 
ticular gain to the pupil in following the order of events 
unless he can catch the meaning of the order. 

Forms in which Representative Material may be 

Presented. 

Here is another question : In what form shall the work 
be presented to the pupil ? Shall it be given in the ordi- 
nary narrative-descriptive form, modified to suit his capa- 
city, or shall this beginning work be woven into the form 
of a story ? There are really three ways of getting this 
Representative material before him : 1. The story that 
centers around an ideal person. 2. The story whose 
center is a real historical personage. 3. The story that is 
built about events and institutions as the center. 

The Story of the Ideal Historical Person. — The choice 
between these is first between the first two and the last. 
The young are more easily interested in persons than in 
events and institutional customs. The marshaling of 
historical facts around an interesting personage — ideal 



REPKUSKNTAT1VE PHASE OF HISTORY. 279 

or real — gives them a coloring and depth of interest that 
can be supplied in no other way. These facts become 
invested with a portion of the interest and the attributes 
of life that attach to the person whose career and expe- 
riences are being followed. But events and persons in 
general do not find the same response from the primary 
pupil. They may find some, but these do not, in the 
nature of things, come so near the child's experience 
gathered from his environment. So that it would seem 
to be best, ordinarily, to begin with the story. Perhaps 
there is a choice between the two classes of stories. Let 
us see by trying the same test, — the child's experience. 
Which comes nearer this, the ideal or the real historical 
person ? Perhaps this depends upon their nature. It is 
not clear that an ideal historical personage who thinks 
and acts like mature men and women would have much 
advantage over the real characters in history. But sup- 
pose the hero or heroine was a boy or girl whose plane of 
thought and living was not much beyond that of the pupil. 
It seems quite clear that such an ideal historical character 
might be the center of a story that would stand much 
nearer the pupil than any story the teacher could build 
around the full-grown man or woman of history. This 
does not mean that no historical facts beyond the grade of 
the pupil's observation may be gathered around the his- 
torical boy or girl. For the opposite can be and has been 
done in the case of Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago 
till Now. The truth is that the real child takes an inter- 
est in things far beyond his ability to understand their 



280 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

connections. By being interested in adult people he be- 
comes interested in the doings of adult people. For this 
reason the historical story whose center is an ideal boy 
or girl may introduce facts and events pertaining to the 
various customs and institutions of human society, provid- 
ing these are associated with persons in whom the ideal 
boy or girl has a natural interest. In the little work 
alluded to above, we see it illustrated in the case of each 
of the ten characters. It is plain in the case of the Aryan 
boy when he participates in the rude worship of his fam- 
ily or follows the migrations of his kindred down into the 
plains of Indus. Again, what real child will not sympa- 
thize with the ideal lad, Ezekiel, when he calls out to his 
mother from the anguish of his little heart, as he sees 
his father dragged to jail: "How shall we get father 
back again? " It even makes a different impression upon 
the adult mind, because of the personal interest in Ezekiel, 
than would the account in the ordinary text of the perse- 
cution of the Puritans in the time of James I. Here are 
great questions brought down to the child's own level 
without losing entirely their real historical significance. 
When Ezekiel's father comes back from the harsh treat- 
ment of the prison, what need is there to search for other 
causes of the Puritan migration to New England ? In 
other words, great facts of history may be made to fasten 
themselves into the minds and hearts of our pupils, because 
these facts are seen to have fastened themselves into the 
hearts and thoughts of boys and girls in whom the pupils 
have an interest. This is based on a universal law of 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 281 

human life, — that life begets life ; sympathy calls forth 
sympathy ; conditions and experiences not too foreign 
calls from the human heart the same thoughts and feel- 
ings that are experienced by the parties who live under 
the conditions and undergo the experiences. This prin- 
ciple is the explanation of much of the success or failure 
of the history work in primary and secondary schools. 

What is contended for in this phase of Representative 
history is a presentation that parallels such geographical 
stories as the Seven Little Siste7 t s, Each and All, and 
Little Folks of the Other Lands. Some very meritori- 
ous beginnings have been made in other fields of history, 
as may be seen with reference to the list of books bearing 
on this phase of the work ; but very few writers have taken 
advantage of the rich field of colonial life, for the benefit 
of American boys and girls. There is hardly lacking a 
single element to make such a story absorbingly interesting 
to primary pupils. Such an account would reveal how 
boys and girls lived in that far-off time : what they ate and 
by what means it was prepared at its various stages, and 
from whence it was obtained ; what sort of clothing for the 
body and the covering for the feet, and the instruments 
and methods by which each was prepared ; what sort of 
homes, how built and furnished ; what the sons and daugh- 
ters of that time did to help on the family life; what their 
pastimes and pleasures were ; their opportunities for study 
and the character of the books they read or heard read; 
how these young friends participated in the affairs of the 
other institutions or took an interest in those who did ; a 



282 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

thousand absorbing features could be discovered in colonial 
history, by the skillful story-teller, to lend their charms to 
such a book or to such a story told at first hand to the 
pupils by the teacher. It must not be inferred that be- 
cause books dealing with this sort of material are scarce 
that the work may not go on. In fact, there are hundreds 
of teachers who can present the material in an oral form 
so as to seem much more real and excite more interest than 
if presented in a story read. In the first place, it must lose 
something in being read — being given second hand. In 
the second place, there is a naturalness and directness in 
the oral story that is missing in the read one. Besides, 
many more teachers can tell a story fairly well than be- 
lieve they can. The greatest difficulty is overcome when 
the right sort of material is collected and the nature and 
purpose of the work is appreciated. 

It has already been stated that American colonial history 
furnishes some very appropriate material for this work. 
What more unique and interesting characters could be 
woven into an historical story than a Puritan boy and girl ? 
The wealth of incident here would be the only serious 
drawback. The hard struggle of the first families against 
climate and hunger ; how a few families formed a town 
which grew by additions ; how the church and the school 
occupied much of the children's time ; what their experi- 
ences were with the Indians; how they felt and acted 
toward them, and what an Indian war meant j how these 
Puritan families in the town got their living; what pas- 
times were regarded as innocent and what as injurious ; 



EBPBESENTAT1VB PHASE OP HISTORY. 283 

how the little town dealt with offenders against law and 
custom ; the high respect and esteem with which all held 
the minister of the village ; the Puritan boy must go with 
his father and his neighbors to the fishing-grounds and see 
how this important supply of food is obtained and witness 
the entire process by which it is prepared for use and for 
the market, and then visit with the merchant ships the 
lands where the fish are exchanged for other products and 
for ready money. Such a story might very appropriately 
cover the period from 1630 to 1660 and be succeeded by 
another covering the Quaker agitation, the trouble with 
Andros, and the witchcraft delusion, and perhaps some 
scenes from King William's war. In the first half of the 
eighteenth century we must have a story that gathers 
around it the great struggle between the English and the 
French for possession of the fur-trade and the fishing- 
ground along the Atlantic. Into this could be woven the 
growth of smuggling and piracy, and how finally the col- 
onists carried on smuggling in the face of such laws as the 
Sugar Act, and how many of them built up vast industries 
on this illicit trade. 

In deep and striking contrast with the stories of New 
England life, as seen through youthful eyes, would stand 
the experience of a planter's son and daughter. What dif- 
ferences of environment ; life on a plantation instead of in 
a town; few associates instead of the society of many; 
private instruction instead of the schools, and then a long 
journey to college or a trip abroad for the son; the pres- 
ence of negro slaves ; now the pupil may follow his hero to 



284 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

the dock and see the newly arrived slaver and her cargo; 
he may hear the bargaining between owner and master; 
and finally may watch the landing of the dusky freight in 
which his hero is to have a personal interest ; he may visit 
the quarters and see how they are fed and clothed; follow 
them in the performance of their duties in the field or 
around the house ; and thus catch an insight into the spirit 
with which they perform their allotted task ; he may be 
permitted to hear the crack of the slave-driver's whip. No 
doubt the young planter will reveal in his conduct the pride 
of his family in their ancestors, their broad acres, and the 
large drove of negroes ; no doubt he will also reveal his 
feeling of social superiority over the children of the over- 
seer and the non-slaveholder. What materials for an ab- 
sorbing story — nothing like it in the rest of America ! 

We must not forget the boy with the broad-brimmed hat 
and drab clothes who came over with William Penn and 
witnessed the great treaty. There is still another boy, liv- 
ing up on the Hudson, whose name is Knickerbocker; he 
founded the Empire state, and had many interesting expe- 
riences very different from our other boys. Of course there 
is no reason why this form of the story should end with 
the colonial period. Indeed, the periods of history that 
follow furnish even more abundant material than the colo- 
nial — especially of military heroes. 

We have outlined, in this brief way, a field of work in 
colonial history that is practically unoccupied, and which 
eventually would yield rich results if cultivated by skillful 
hands. The amount of time required to do this work will 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 285 

depend, in part, upon the age of the pupil and the skill of 
the teacher. If but one year is spent upon the Sense phase 
of the work, then two years, at an age, say, from seven to 
nine, may profitably be given to the story in this form. 

The Story of the Real Historical Person. — While the 
pupil has been enriching his imagination, for a year or so, 
by work after the kind indicated above, he has been ex- 
tending his observation upon men and institutions and has 
been gathering that strength which inevitably follows an 
increase in years. He is then stronger from age, from ex- 
perience, and from the possession of much historical mate- 
rial. In the order of the difficulty next comes the second 
form of historical story, the one in which the material 
is grouped around a real historical figure, — the man of 
flesh and blood. This is hero study still, but of a little 
different sort. The hero now is a man, or at least soon 
grows to be one. The facts and events will, therefore, 
present life in its sterner aspects. Where shall we find 
our heroes, and who shall they be ? In this aspect of the 
work, the teacher will be overwhelmed with the abundance 
of the material. From Columbus to the Columbian Expo- 
sition the heroes and heroines are abundant. Here is a 
partial list which may be suggestive as to what is possible 
in this field. 

Discoveries and Settlements. 

1. Columbus and the Finding of America. 

2. Americus and the Naming of America. 

3. Cortez, the Conqueror of Mexico. 

4. Champlain, the Father of New France. 



286 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

5. La Salle. 

6. Marquette. 

7. Joliet. 

8. Henry Hudson and the Half Moon. 

9. John Cabot, who first saw the Continent. 

10. Sir Francis Drake, who sailed the Spanish Main. 

11. Sir Walter Raleigh, who tried to plant a Colony. 

12. Captain John Smith, the Founder of Jamestown. 

13. Pocahontas, the Indian Queen. 

14. Captain Miles Standish, the Pilgrim Soldier. 

15. Squanto and Samoset, the good Indians. 

16. Winthrop, the long-time Governor of Massachusetts. 

17. Roger Williams, the Founder of Rhode Island and the 

Friend of Massachusetts. 

18. King Philip, the bad Indian. 

19. Captain Kidd, the Pirate. 

20. Peter Stuyvesant and the Defence of New Amsterdam. 

21. Nathaniel Bacon and his Men. 

22. William Penn and the Great Treaty. 

23. Governor Andros, the Tyrant of New England. 

The Period of Revolution. 

1. General Montcalm, the Defender of Canada. 

2. General Wolfe, the Hero of Quebec. 

3. George Washington, the Undaunted. 

4. Nathaniel Greene, the Strategist of the Revolution. 

5. General Stark and his Green Mountain Boys. 

6. Israel Putnam and the News from Lexington. 

7. Daniel Morgan and his Sharpshooters. 

8. Mad Anthony Wayne and the Storming of Stony Point. 

9. Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 287 

10. General Herkimer and the Relief of Fort Stanwix. 

11. Paul Jones and his great Sea Fight. 

12. Paul Revere, the Courier of the Revolution. 

13. Daniel Boone, the Pioneer of Kentucky. 

14. George Rogers Clark and the Campaign against Vincennes. 

15. Samuel Adams, the Firebrand of the Revolution. 

16. Patrick Henry, the Orator of the Revolution. 

17. Benjamin Franklin and his old brown Coat. 

18. La Fayette, the Friend of Washington and America. 

19. Light Horse Harry, the Cavalry Captain. 

20. Story of Jennie McCrea and Burgoyne's Allies. 

21. How Colonel Washington made his Mark at the Battle of 

Cowpens. 

22. Robert Morris, the Financier of the Revolution. 

This stage of work can be made to yield some valuable 
pedagogical results, so far as the spiritual life of the child 
is concerned. In the discussions upon the educational 
value of interpretation and other logical processes, we saw 
a peculiar ethical value resulting from a study of motives 
to action in men, parties, and nations. But in the work 
described above there is added another element, namely, 
admiration for that which is heroic. No more powerful 
formative influence can take hold on the heart and mind of 
the pupil than a splendid heroic character. The life of the 
child grows toward the life he studies and admires. He 
will consciously strive to realize in his own conduct what 
attracts him in the conduct of his hero. If the admiration 
is strong, the pupil may look upon all his acts — good or 
bad — as worthy of imitation. No doubt the unconscious 



288 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

influence of such study is even greater than the conscious. 
It reaches into the life of the pupil in a way that eludes 
the teacher and parent, — ■ both wonder where certain opin- 
ions and actions originate without being able to discover 
the cause ; even the pupil cannot explain it, for he is not 
conscious in many instances of following any one in his 
conduct. 

Hero worship partly explains the attraction which youth- 
ful minds find in the cheap novel. Surely, the teacher 
should be as wise as the novelist, and may be wiser than 
some novelists, for in a measure the teacher may select the 
characters presented for study and moral guidance. In 
making this selection the teacher will be guided by the 
ethical welfare of the pupil, and will certainly not feed the 
young imagination and emotions upon abnormal examples 
of either goodness or wickedness ; and while it is no doubt 
wise that gentle, generous, noble, self-sacrificing, and patri- 
otic characters should constitute the predominant themes 
for study, yet it remains true that real life for which 
the pupil is preparing will present many characters just 
the opposite of what it is possible to select for him from the 
pages of history. In the affairs of life it will be just as 
necessary for his own good and that of his country that he 
should courageously condemn the low and base as praise 
the noble and brave. 

Can hero study be made to stimulate not only admiration 
for the good, but condemnation for the bad ? In two ways, 
it seems to me, this result may be reached. First, by 
watching a hero in his struggle against the wrong. This 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 289 

increases admiration for the hero. Second, by presenting 
the opposite sort of hero now and then, so that the pupil's 
hatred for cowards, traitors, thieves, and self-seekers may 
be strengthened, and his appreciation of the noble qualities 
of men may be stronger by seeing the evil results that flow 
from men of opposite character. Under certain limitations 
ignoble conduct excites greater respect and admiration for 
its opposite, and may cause the pupil to resolve to avoid it 
and practice, and otherwise promote, the positive virtues. 
This can be successfully accomplished by the wise lead- 
ings of the teacher. Not much of the interpretation of 
the conduct of noble characters is necessary, for their lives 
speak a language directly to the heart ; but the negative 
character, like Arnold or General Charles Lee, must be 
handled with more care. Their lives illustrate how per- 
sons of great ability in high places may be dominated by 
selfish ends and bring great injury upon themselves, their 
friends, and their country. But too many such cases 
weaken the pupil's faith in human nature, — a most disas- 
trous result, as far as the pupil is concerned. For this 
reason, as well as for the truth of history, the teachers 
must see that the positive rather than the negative hero 
occupies the greater share of this portion of history work. 
The Story Side of the Event. — This represents the 
third form of the historical story and also the third phase 
of Representative history. It has been remarked, in other 
connections, that the events have a sensuous side which 
lends itself to reproduction in imagination. The pictur- 
able incidents of an event furnish the material for weaving 



290 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

about it a story. The age and experience l of the pupil — 
say, from ten to fourteen — permit an interest in the pano- 
rama of the event for its own sake. There will not be the 
same need of leaning upon an ideal or real historical per- 
son as before. However, the transition from the second 
Story form to the third should be gradual. The transition 
may be easy and natural, for the real historical personage 
participates in events, and it becomes only a transfer of 
emphasis from one element in the moving scene to another. 

There is no need of repeating here what has been said 
about the possibility of reproducing events — picturing 
them in imagination. It may not be amiss to say that 
some features of events yield themselves more readily to 
reproduction than others ; in general, those which appeal 
to the eye, attract the ear, and touch the feelings of the 
observer are the ones most susceptible of vivid reproduc- 
tion. This general rule may be pretty safely followed in 
the preparation of a story, if it be constantly remembered 
that events and their various features are so many signs 
of thoughts and feelings. 

Immediately, with respect to knowledge, the object in 
view is to give the pupil possession of the picture side of 
the leading events of American history, so that he may 
know how American history appeared to the people who 
made it, and at the same time have some appreciation of 
their thoughts and feelings. Pictures of events may not 

1 Even if the pupil has not had the preliminary training in the 
other forms of the story, yet he has been gaining some from reading 
and much from observing the movements of events around him. 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 291 

be a high form of historical knowledge, but they certainly 
do enrich the mind of the possessor. They give to it not 
only richness of imagery, but a variety that confers life 
and elasticity. The very presence of imaged events must 
make the mind vastly more fertile than it would otherwise 
be, and will give it the power of self -employment and self- 
entertainment. There is a vast difference between young 
persons who have abundant mental resources and those 
whose minds are empty. To give the young people the 
power to call up in brilliant and imposing review the pro- 
cession of events from the beginning of American history 
to the present is a task worthy of the highest pedagogical 
skill, especially when one thinks of the consequences which 
may flow from it. 

On the side of mind, the immediate purpose of this sort 
of story-making is to train the imagination — to give it 
power and facility in performing its functions. No richer 
opportunity of cultivating the sensuous imagination will 
ever come to the pupil; no other subject will furnish it 
more exercise than this phase of history. 

Eemotely, the purpose here is to prepare for the begin- 
nings of that form of history work in which the processes 
and products of the understanding are the characteristic 
features. This portion of the Story side of history forms 
a natural transition to the reflective or logical phase. In 
the first place, it deals with the same individual facts and 
events ; and, in the second place, the action of the judgment 
in the form of inference comes into play as a constantly 
growing factor. The remarks already made concerning the 



292 PHASES OF HISTOKY TEACHING. 

dependence of the advanced form of history work upon the 
picture form of it had particular reference to the picture 
side of the event. Both the unfolding mental life of the 
pupil and the relation of dependence between the phases 
of history work demand that the teacher shall look beyond 
this particular form to that higher toward which the pupil 
is moving, and that the present work shall be constantly 
modified to meet these more remote ends. It requires little 
effort to see the great gain to the pupil who has covered 
the leading events of American history in this way when 
he comes to the more thoughtful work. 

There need be little discussion as to where appropriate 
material is to be found. It is abundant all along the way, 
from Columbus to our day. It will be safe generally to 
follow the order of events as presented in some good text 
on American history. While the sequence of events is 
now to have weight, yet the teacher is not to try to cover 
each of the events by a story, but rather is to make a 
selection of events determined partly by their importance 
and partly by the ease with which the facts permit of this 
kind of treatment. But so far as the materials for the 
story are concerned, the ordinary text furnishes little more 
than a dry outline. In most cases it is not adapted to this 
sort of work. Generally it is a skeleton narrative, while 
it ought to be narrative-descriptive, not only exhibiting 
to the imagination interesting movements of men and 
events, but also presenting an abundance of concrete acts 
and other details, which reveal, to some extent, the thoughts 
and feelings behind them. On the other hand, it is no un- 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 293 

common mistake for history text-books to do too much for 
the pupil 1 by giving what he ought to discover by interpre- 
tation. The pupil is thus deprived of his right to think 
out for himself what he is easily capable of doing, and what 
he must be allowed to do, if he is to get growth out of this 
subject. Instead of permitting independent effort, the text- 
book often gives him a ready-made solution, as would be 
said in arithmetic, and his only apparent work is to memo- 
rize it and give it back to the teacher in the memorized 
and unassimilated form. Such a text-book deprives the 
teacher of the opportunity of testing her skill in setting 
problems in history to the pupil. Lacking this stimulus 
she assigns the lesson in terms of paragraphs and pages 
instead of ideas. Of course, this may be avoided if the 
teacher makes her own story of the event. 

Illustrations of Material and Method of Work. — An 
example of the Story side of the event will explain more 
fully the nature and purpose of this transitional phase, 
and at the same time illustrate the method to be employed. 
Let us take the Boston Tea Party. This presupposes that 
the pupil has dealt in like manner with the Stamp Act, the 
Congress of 1765, the Boston Massacre, and other related 
acts. We want the pupil to look, as it were, on the Boston 
Tea Party, and see it just as it occurred. If the teacher 
has the power to make him feel the jostle of the crowd 
and hear the voices of the multitude so vividly that he 
loses himself for the time being, so much the better. 

1 A truer statement of this defect is that the text-book does too 
little for the pupil by doing too much for him, 



294 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

Early one morning, in the middle of December, 1773, on 
all the roads leading to Boston, for a distance of twenty 
miles around, were to be seen men singly and in groups 
making their way to town. Let us look at these people. 
They are engaged in earnest conversation ; some of them 
speak loudly, and shake their heads and fists. As the dis- 
tance grows shorter, people are seen on foot ; the numbers 
increase till it seems that all the country villages are 
emptying their people, on that cold day, into Boston. As 
these two thousand country and village people approach 
the city they find it all astir ; the shops and stores are 
closed ; men are gathered in groups discussing the question 
whether the tea shall be landed or not ; messengers are 
running to and fro over the city, and a general movement 
toward the "Old South Meeting-House " is noticed. There, 
at ten o'clock, the vast crowd assembles to hear the answer 
of the owner of one of the vessels, whether he will take 
his cargo of hated tea back to England. The meeting 
organizes by the election of a Moderator, and Mr. Eotch, 
the vessel owner, tells the meeting that the collector of the" 
port refuses to let him go back with his tea ; the meeting 
then orders him to hurry to the governor and get his per- 
mission to pass by the guns of Castle William. While the 
anxious owner goes in search of the governor, who has 
gone away to his country seat to avoid the crowds, the 
great mass meeting adjourns till the afternoon. 

At three o'clock, it seemed that all the town tried to get 
into the " Old South Meeting-House," crowding its seats 
and galleries, standing in its aisles and around the entrance, 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 295 

— seven thousand people tried to hear and see what was 
said and done. The meeting comes to order, hears patri- 
otic speeches, and passes resolutions not to allow the tea to 
be landed. Great enthusiasm is excited when one speaker 
asks "how tea would taste in salt water," and another 
said : " Now the hand is to the plough, there must be no 
looking back." Closest attention is given to the earnest 
advice of Josiah Quincy, as he counsels moderation and 
prophesies of the great struggle near at hand. Samuel 
Adams, of course, was listened to in that winter's after- 
noon. Night comes on and lights are brought in, but no 
answer is at hand from the governor, and yet the people 
wait. There was a feeling " as the cold night darkened 
without, that the last scene was about to be enacted." At 
6.15 Eotch came in and told the breathless audience that 
the governor would not let the tea go back. The people 
began to murmur against Eotch, but Samuel Adams arose 
and said : " This meeting can do nothing more to save the 
country." This seemed to be a signal, for immediately the 
war-whoop of the "Mohawks" startled the audience; it 
was answered from the galleries ; the whole audience now 
shouts its approval, and pours itself out into the streets 
and noisily follows the " Mohawks " to the wharf and there 
witnesses their work. See the Indians clamber over the 
sides of the vessel; whooping and brandishing their toma- 
hawks, they rush down to the hold and up comes the boxes 
of tea — two hundred and forty of them — and are thrown 
into the sea. The w r ork was hardly done before the swift 
couriers were hastening with the news to leading Massa- 



296 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

clmsetts towns. All New England was thrilled by the 
news as it sped by one means or another from province to 
province. On the next day, Paul Revere, the courier of 
the Revolution, rode away to New York and Philadelphia 
to carry the tidings of that day's work. At every farm- 
house, village, or city he told the story. There was great 
rejoicing, ringing of bells, bonfires, speeches, toasts, — and 
all in honor of the patriots of Boston. Philadelphia had 
two meetings in celebration of the event, and at the last 
one, attended by five thousand people, sent a formal vote of 
thanks to the Bostonians. The news was carried far to the 
southward, and even from the Carolinas came back words 
of approbation and good will. 

After a fashion, the above paragraph indicates the kind 
of pictures the pupil should find in a text-book or in the 
teacher's stories adapted to this stage of history work. 
What shall the pupil do with this sort of material ? In 
the first place, he should not commit the language. In the 
second place, if the teacher wishes the pupil to solve the 
problem before the recitation, then the lesson will be 
assigned in terms of the thoughts and feelings of the 
people ; while, if the teacher wishes the solution to be 
thought out in the class, the lesson will be assigned in 
terms of the picture. To accomplish the latter purpose, 
the teacher assigns the lesson about as follows : 1. Read 
over the story of the Tea Party till you can see, with your 
eyes shut, the acts of the people from beginning to end. 
2. Tell the number of great scenes in the picture, and 
describe the acts of the people in each great scene. These 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OE HISTORY. 297 

directions will prepare the pupil for the real struggle that 
is to take place in the recitation, — the passing by infer- 
ence from the deeds of the people to their thoughts and 
feelings. But if the former plan is pursued, the direc- 
tions may take a form like the following : 1. What con- 
clusions can you draw from seeing so many country people 
on their way to Boston at the same time ? Prove your 
answer from their acts. 2. How were the people of the 
town feeling over the question of the tea ? Give reasons. 
3. What is the meaning of the meeting of the country and 
town people all together, hearing and applauding the same 
speeches, voting the same resolutions, and participating in 
the destruction of the tea ? 4. Did not the persons who 
destroyed the tea feel guilty of wrong-doing ? Prove your 
answer. 5. Why was the news carried so quickly to the 
Massachusetts and other New England towns ? 6. Why 
was Paul Revere sent to New York and Philadelphia with 
the news of the Tea Party, and what is the meaning of the 
responses that greeted him and the people of Boston ? 
7. Did the governor of Massachusetts agree with the 
people ? Prove the answer. 8. What do you infer as 
to the effect of the work of the Tea Party on England ? 
Why? 

These questions, or others of a similar import, should be 
put to the class before or during the recitation. If used in 
assigning the lesson, they will force the pupil to go through 
the language to the ideas expressed — will force him to 
go down below the surface play of events into the hearts 
and minds of the people. This would cause the pupil to 



298 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

study and re-study the story of the event, and would, no 
doubt, leave him in possession of as full a picture of the 
scene as if the lesson had been assigned in terms of the pic- 
ture. How many of these questions can the pupil answer ? 
Nearly, if not quite, all of them. How many can he find 
formally answered in the above sketch ? He should find 
none, or at most a very small number. Suppose the text 
should indicate somewhat in detail the answers to these 
questions. What difference would it make to the pupil ? 
All the difference between the work of an active sharp- 
ened judgment and the monotonous grind of the memory ! 
Why not give the pupil an opportunity to think a little in 
history ? 

It will be noted that in this transition phase attention is 
being directed to the content of the acts put forth. Now, 
while this is still Story work, yet the work of stimulating 
the historical judgment must be kept in mind and must 
become more and more prominent as the student grows 
stronger through discipline and knowledge. 

One more illustration will be given, — somewhat more 
difficult, and taken from the text of Montgomery's Lead- 
ing Facts of American History. This will serve to show 
how the teacher may use the material found in certain 
text-books and adapt it to this phase of the work. 

"General G-age, having learned that the colonists had 
stored a quantity of powder and provisions for the use of 
their militia, at Concord, about twenty miles from Boston, 
sent a secret expedition to destroy both. The soldiers 
were instructed to go by way of Lexington, and there 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 299 

arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were known 
to be stopping with a friend in that village. The London 
papers boasted that the heads of these two prominent 
' rebels ' would soon be on exhibition in that city j but, as 
Gage found out, Adams and Hancock were not the kind of 
men to lose their heads so easily. 

"The British troops left Boston just before midnight of 
April 18, 1775. Paul Eevere, a noted Boston patriot, was 
on the watch, and as soon as he saw his friends' signal 
lanterns hung out in the steeple of the Old North Church, 
— a church still standing, — he galloped through the 
country giving the alarm. When he reached the house in 
Lexington where Hancock and Adams were asleep, a man 
on guard cried out to him, 'Don't make so much noise.' 
1 Noise ! ' shouted Revere ; ' you'll have noise enough before 
long : the " regulars " are coming.' 

"Just before daybreak of April 19, the ' regulars' marched 
on to the village green of Lexington, where a number of 
1 minute men' had collected. ' Disperse, ye rebels,' shouted 
Pitcairn, the British commander. No one moved ; then 
Pitcairn cried, ' Fire ! ' A volley blazed out, and seven Ameri- 
cans fell dead. Advancing to Concord, the soldiers de- 
stroyed such military stores as they could find ; at Concord 
bridge they were met by the patriots. Both fired ; it was 
the true opening battle of the Eevolution, — several men 
fell on each side. There the first British blood was shed ; 
there the first British graves were dug. The 'regulars' 
then drew back, leaving the Americans in possession of the 
bridge, and began their march toward Boston. 



300 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

"But the whole country was now aroused. The enraged 
farmers fired at the British from behind every wall, bush, 
and tree. The march became a retreat, the retreat some- 
thing like a run. When the ' regulars ' got back to Lex- 
ington, where Lord Percy met them with reinforcements, 
they dropped panting on the ground, their tongues hang- 
ing out like those of tired dogs. From Lexington the 
' minute men ' chased the British all the way to Charles- 
town. Nearly three hundred of the ' red-coats/ as the 
Americans nicknamed the English soldiers, lay dead or 
dying on the road. 

" Percy had marched gaily out of Boston to the tune of 
' Yankee Doodle,' played in ridicule of the Americans, 
but it was noticed that his band did not play it on re- 
entering the town — they had had quite enough of all that 
was ' Yankee ' for that day. 

"The next morning the British army found themselves 
shut up in Boston. The Americans had surrounded the 
town on the land side, and in future no expedition could 
leave it in that direction without a fight. The siege of 
Boston had begun." 

The lesson on this may be assigned with reference to 
two ends : picturing clearly and vividly the scenes enacted, 
and interpreting the scenes, — getting into the minds and 
hearts of the contestants. 

If the class have not heard or read this story before, 
then the first lesson ought to be assigned in terms of the 
picture. Some directions like the following may be used : 
1. Read over the lesson till you can see all the movements 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 301 

from Boston to Concord and back again. 2. Picture Paul 
Revere on the watch — tell what you would have seen had 
you stood by. 3. Go with Paul Revere as he alarmed the 
country, and tell what he did and said, what the people — 
fathers, sons, mothers, children — did and said, and what- 
ever else might have been seen and heard that night. 
4. Picture the skirmish on Lexington Green and at Con- 
cord Bridge. 5. Work out all the features of the retreat 
to Lexington. 6. What did the Yankee boys see and hear 
who hid behind the stone walls and watched the minute 
men chase the regulars from Lexington to Charlestown ? 

7. What differences did General Gage see between the 
British soldiers as they marched out and as they returned? 

8. What do you see in and around Boston the next day ? 
Other elements of the picture may be brought out by ques- 
tions formulated to suit the case. 

While the narration and description of events given 
above are better adapted to this form of study than that 
given by most texts of this grade, yet it is very desirable 
that the teacher suggest to the pupil the necessity of en- 
riching certain scenes by reading other and fuller accounts. 
By this means, different members of the class will be able 
to contribute different details to the pictures ; two gains 
will be made, — fuller pictures and the habit of looking 
further than the text for facts. 

If the pupil, for any reason, can do more and stronger 
work than the above questions call for, the teacher may in 
addition require an interpretation of the acts pictured, as 
far as the pupil's ability will permit. The following ques- 



302 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

tions and directions will illustrate what is meant : 1. What 
was the purpose of both English and Americans with ref- 
erence to this expedition? Prove your answer from the 
text and from the acts of the participants. 2. Which party- 
changed its purpose? Prove by citing facts. 3. What 
conclusions do you reach from the fact that the expedition 
was intended to be secret and yet was watched ? What 
other facts support your conclusions ? 4. What were the 
feelings of the people when Paul Eevere aroused them out 
of their sleep ? Why do you think so ? 5. Could Paul 
Revere have aroused enough farmers to defeat the British ? 
What inferences, then, are safe to make ? 6. Contrast the 
thoughts and feelings of the British regulars on leaving 
Boston with their thoughts and feelings on returning. 
G-ive reasons. 

It ought to be clear that no memorizing of the text of 
the above account can meet the requirements indicated by 
the above questions and directions. In truth, the pupil 
would never be tempted to memorize words if it were not 
for the teacher. The teacher, by her assign ment of work 
and method of conducting the recitation, forces the pupil 
to commit the language of the text. No normal child takes 
pleasure in this unless it is found to be the easiest way of 
" getting the lesson." The illustrations given will indicate 
the method to be followed to break up the habit when once 
formed and also to prevent its formation. 

It is hardly necessary to draw the contrast between this 
method of dealing with events and the method usually fol- 
lowed. Tried by any standard, one merits recommendation 



REPRESENTATIVE PHASE OF HISTORY. 303 

and the other condemnation. What if the pnpil had two 
years of this work, — touching the leading events of 
American history, — as a preparation for the organization 
of that history into such a system as has been indicated in 
the first part of this book ? Certainly he would be in a 
position to begin earlier than is usual the work of organiz- 
ing the material of history in the form of a system. This 
would also relieve him of the double task of gathering the 
new material of the subject, while he ought to be expend- 
ing all his energies in interpretation and other organizing 
processes. 

We have now come full around again to the last phase 
of history study, — that phase where the student's knowl- 
edge ends and the teacher's knowledge begins. 



304 



HISTORY BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



Primary Grades. 

1. Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago to Now. Lee Sf 

Shepard. 

2. Stories of Heroic Deeds. American Book Co. 

3. Swiss Family Robinson. Ginn 8f Co. 

4. Pilgrims and Puritans. Ginn 8f Co. 

5. Ten Great Events in History. American Book Co. 

6. Stories of Our Country. American Book Co. 

7. Eggleston's History of the United States. American Book 

Co. 

8. Gilman's Discovery and Exploration of America. Inter- 

State Pub. Co. 

9. Gilman's Colonization of America. Inter-State Pub. Co. 
10. Gilman's Making of the American Nation. Inter-State 

Pub. Co. 
1.1. Grandfather's Stories. American Book Co. 

12. American History Stories, Nos. 1-4. I. N. Harlan (Indi- 

anapolis). 

13. Pioneer History Stories. First Series. Public School Pub. 

Co. 

14. Glasscock's Stories of Columbia. D. Appleton Sf Co. 

15. Pierson's History of the United States (One Syllable). 

Geo. Routledge 8f Sons. 

16. Pierson's Lives of the Presidents (One Syllable). Geo. 

Routledge &f Sons. 



HISTORY BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 305 



Grammar Grades. 

1. Pratt's American History Stories, Nos. 1-4. Educational 

Pub. Co. 

2. Pratt's Columbus. Educational Pub. Co. 

3. Pratt's Pizarro. Educational Pub. Co. 

4. Pratt's Cortez and Montezuma. Educationcd Pub. Co. 

5. Pratt's Great West. Educational Pub. Co. 

6. Pratt's Stories of Massachusetts. Educational Pub. Co. 

7. Children's Stories of Adventure and Discovery. 

8. Children's Stories of American Progress. 

9. Poor Boys who have become Famous. 

10. Sewell's Paul Jones. 

11. Higginson's Young Folks' History of the United States. 

Lee 8f Shepard. 

12. Butterworth's Young Folks' History of America. Lothrop 

&Co. 

13. Coffin's Building of the Nation. Harper &f Bros. 

14. Coffin's Boys of 76. Harper 8f Bros. 

15. Coffin's Boys of '61. Harper &j Bros. 

16. Coffin's Old Times in the Colonies. Harper &/ Bros. 

17. Coffin's Nights on the Battlefield. Estes 8f Lauriat. 

18. Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair. Houghton, Mifflin &f Co. 

19. Page's Two Little Confederates. 

20. From Colony to Commonwealth. Ginn &f Co. 

21. Fiske's War for Independence. Houghton, Mifflin &f Co. 

22. Brooks' Historic Boys. Putnam's Sons. 

23. Brooks' Historic Girls. Putnam's Sons. 

24. Abbott's Peter Stuyvesant. Dodd, Mead &j Co. 

25. Abbott's Paul Jones. Dodd, Mead &/ Co. 

26. Abbott's Daniel Boone. Dodd, Mead &f Co. 



306 PHASES OF HISTORY TEACHING. 

27. Scudder's Boston Town. Houghton, Mifflin fy Co. 

28. Rolfe's Tales from English History. Harper &c Bros. 

29. Rolfe's Tales from Scottish History. Harper Sc Bros. 

30. Rolfe's Tales from Chivalry. Harper Sf Bros. 

31. Washington and His Country. Ginn Sf Co. 

32. Chivalric Days. Putnam's Sons. 

33. With Lee in Virginia. Scribner's Sons. 

34. Scudder's George Washington. Houghton, Mifflin Sf Co. 




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